Adapting to Google’s Changes | LocalVisibilitySystem.com

Google Places Descriptions Are Back, Baby

August 18, 2011 6 Comments

I know I sound like George Costanza when I say that, but I’m excited to announce the return of the Places “Descriptions” that went missing from everybody’s Places page a few weeks ago.

Here are a few of my clients whose Descriptions are back in all their glory. After all this time, I assume you’d have to see it to believe it:

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

My clients are awesome, so the reappearance of their Descriptions is particularly deserved , but I’ve seen a few others reappear as well.

The only way in which the Descriptions are not totally “back” is that there seems to be a processing delay on Google’s end when you try to update one. Some of my newest clients’ Descriptions aren’t showing up on their Places pages just yet. Linda Buquet has reported that there’s a 6-10 week delay in updates (ouch) on Google’s end. This appears to be right on the money.

What kind of shape is your Google Places “Description” in at this point? Make my day and leave me a comment!

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Filed Under: Adapting to Google's Changes, Announcements, Local Search Show-and-Tell, New Stuff in Google Places Tagged With: description, layout change

How to Score Google Places Sitelinks

August 17, 2011 1 Comment

What’s are “Google Places sitelinks”? They’re these:

Little links in the search result for your website–links that lead to several specific pages in your site.

Sitelinks have appeared in Adwords ads and some organic search results for a long time. But only recently have they started showing up in the local search results.

More specifically, they show up in Google’s “blended” local search results–that is, when you have a bunch of local business / Google Places search results mixed up in with a standard “organic” search results–as in the picture above. In any given local market, customers will see either this “blended” layout, or they’ll see the slightly more common “7-pack” search results (which we’re a little more used to seeing in Google Places.)

If you have a website–and you absolutely must have one unless you’re a barber shop in Mayberry–you want it to rank as highly as possible in the organic search results. Duh.

To the extent that the “blended” local search results (above) appear when you type in a local search term that you want to be found for, you want your site to be as visible as possible in those “blended” local search results, too. You get maximum local visibility by doing two things:

1. Ranking as highly as possible in Google Places, AND

2. Hogging as much territory on the blended search-results page as you can. This is why you need to try to get Google Places sitelinks. They take up an extra line of space on the page, and they draw attention the themselves.

You can use the resources on this site to accomplish #1. But how about #2? How can you get the sitelinks to show up under YOUR site?

Google won’t say, exactly. According to Google, your site has to be “useful” to the visitor, and it has to be easy for Google’s bots to find your pages. It’s an algorithm that determines whether you get sitelinks: as with a box of chocolates and everything Google-related, you never know what you’re gonna get.

Fine…but how do you get the sitelinks?

I suggest you follow 5 main steps, which are in rough order of importance:

1. Feature helpful, informative, all-original content that’s highly relevant to the services you offer, for which you’re trying to get visible in Google Places. Content is still King. Sure, there are plenty of princes, jesters, and eunuchs who also occupy the court to a lesser extent. But none wields the influence over the great land of Google that King Content still wields. It’s also how you’ll get other sites to link to yours spontaneously, and good relevant content helps your Google Places ranking big-time. If you’re not sure how to create good, relevant content that your customers will actually find useful, I suggest you take a look at CopyBlogger. It’s a superb source of ideas.

2. Use a simple page structure. Don’t have your “Services” page, your “Contact Us” page, and your articles pages nested in a bunch of other pages. The structure should not be “www.yoursite.com/locations/2011/page-you-want-a-sitelink-for.html”. It should be more like www.yoursite.com/page-you-want-a-sitelink-for.html”.

3. Make sure your page names are concise. Google looks at this. If you want your “Specialties” page to get a sitelink, make sure it’s called “specialties.php” or something. Ideally, make the menu button match the page name. If your page name is too long, Google won’t give you a sitelink, based on what I’ve seen.

4. Get Google Webmaster Tools set up on your site (if it isn’t already) and then use it to submit a “Google Sitemap.” This will help Google crawl your site. Plus, it’s free.

5. Keep grinding away at your link-building campaign. Getting good content on other sites, with links back to yours, is still a great way to show Google how “useful” your site is. This probably isn’t news to you; I’m just saying don’t forget to keep up with it.

IF the “blended” local search results show up in Google Places in your local market (as opposed to the “7-pack”), these 5 steps should not only help get your business visible there in the first place, but should also help you snag some sitelinks, more on-page territory, and more local customers than your competitors have.

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Filed Under: Adapting to Google's Changes, Local Visibility – the Technical Side, Techniques for More Visibility Tagged With: google places sitelinks, local search visibility, sitelinks

What To Do While Google Screws with Your Places Listing

July 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

The Google Places page layout has gone through big changes recently, as you may have seen. These changes include not showing snippets of reviews written through third-party sites (like Yelp), and removing the “Details” area from the Places page.

Personally, I hope these changes are only temporary. I and your customers prefer having more information about a local business rather than less information. But Google didn’t ask my opinion or anyone else’s. Whatever. Not important.

What DOES matter is whether you’ll let the recent changes hurt your ability to attract local customers. With all the buzz about the changes, I haven’t yet seen anybody clarify what you should actually do about the changes.

As it stands now, you’ll probably just have to make a few minor changes to your website if you want to avoid a drop-off in calls and/or customers. Maybe all the missing info will return to Google Places page in a couple days or a couple weeks, making this post irrelevant. But that’s a big “maybe.” In the meantime, you don’t want to lose your mojo with local customers.

Time to get specific. First, here’s what’s currently ABSENT from your Google Places page:

-Your business hours

-The short (200-character) “Description” of your business (according to Google, this may reappear soon…or it may not)

-The “Additional Details” section

Sure, there’s other missing info –like your “citation” sources and the list of sites your business has been reviewed on. But the missing hours, “Description,” and “Details” provide info that’s especially important for anyone who’s considering becoming your newest customer. They won’t pay you if they can’t learn basic facts about you–and they can’t just find what they need on your Google Places page.

Fortunately, this is where your website comes in. You need to add the missing info prominently to the home page of your site (if it’s not there already).

I suggest you do the following:

Tweak 1. Show your business hours visibly on your home page. By “visibly” I mean they should be above the fold and should be formatted differently from the rest of the text–perhaps bold / slightly larger font / different color.

Tweak 2. Make sure your homepage instantly tells people what you offer. Know how the tiny 200-character Google Places “Description” was at the very top of your Place page and forced you to describe your services in a nutshell? I you put a similar little blurb at or near the very top of your homepage. Maybe throw in a really clear, descriptive picture, too.

In fact, if you log into your Google Places listing, you’ll find the “Description” that used to show up publicly on your listing. If you don’t feel like writing, just copy that little blurb and paste it onto your homepage. This at least gives potential customers the same info they’d like to have seen on your Google listing, and it tells them that they’re in the right place to find the services that they just searched for in Google.

Tweak 3. Put any “Additional Details” you had on your Google Places page on your homepage. If you log in to the “Edit” area of your listing, you should see any “Details” that used to show up on your Places page. Stick any of these relevant, good-to-know details onto your homepage. Make ‘em visible, too–perhaps bold.

What if you didn’t have any “Details” on your Google Places page? If that’s the case, I suggest you make sure all of the following is prominent on your homepage:

-Accepted forms of payment. To the extent that you accept credit cards, it’s a good idea to include little pictures of each accepted card. By the way, this is also a great photo to add to your Google Places page.

-All your services. You want people who saw your Google Places listing and clicked on your site to know that they’ve come to the right place, and that you offer what they’re looking for. Bullet-point lists are a great way to showcase all your services, by the way.

-Local areas you serve. Don’t name like 50 towns. But it’s good to specify that you serve (for example) “Greater Austin” and maybe a few nearby towns. This helps you get visible in Google in those areas, and especially helps your customers know that you’re truly local.

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It would be nice if Google reintroduced a way to put all this info on your Places page. But it shouldn’t matter: most people look at your site at least briefly before becoming your customers. To the extent you can make your site better and more informative, you’re more likely to get more local customers.

Can you think of any other “survival tips” for weathering unpredictable Google Places changes? Leave a comment!

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Filed Under: Adapting to Google's Changes, Techniques for More Visibility Tagged With: additional details, description, layout change, local search visibility