The “business categories” you choose for your Google Places page matter—big-time. Your choices can help get your business visible to all the local customers you’re trying to reach, or they can cause Google to pluck your business off the map (and not … [Continue reading] about 13 Best-Practices for Picking Google Places Business Categories
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My Caveman Painting of a Local Search Engine
Fine, I guess our cavemen ancestors didn’t have search engines to help them find the closest woolly mammoth watering hole or the finest maker of custom wooden clubs this side of Bedrock. I’m afraid I don’t have any caveman artifacts, per se. But … [Continue reading] about My Caveman Painting of a Local Search Engine
5 Google Places Tests I’d Love to See
I discover a lot about Google Places by wrestling with it all day, every day. But I’m also constantly scratching my head at questions—things that I just started wondering about based on observations, or that people have asked me. Some of these … [Continue reading] about 5 Google Places Tests I’d Love to See
Which Awards Grow Your Local-Search Stature?
Every now and then I stumble across a business in Google Places that has a sweet “best-of” –type award sitting right at the top of its Places page. I don’t run across these awards too frequently—but when a business has one, I notice it. More … [Continue reading] about Which Awards Grow Your Local-Search Stature?
New Inequality in Google Places: Sitelinks in "Blended" Local Search Results
I've just seen what I believe is a new competitive edge that some businesses can wield over others in the Google Places “blended” search results: sitelinks. For example, here’s a screenshot of how one of my clients shows up in Google Places—notice … [Continue reading] about New Inequality in Google Places: Sitelinks in "Blended" Local Search Results