Google has run into some “complications” upgrading local businesses to the new Places dashboard. In some cases, businesses’ accounts and another accounts that they don’t control were both verified for the same business using the old Places dashboard. In other…
Google Updates Quality Guidelines For Businesses
Google announced that it has made some tweaks to the Google Places Quality Guidelines, specifically for business names. The changes illustrate how you can add descriptors. Jade Wang announced the update ion a post on the Google Product Forums. Under…
Google Adds Regional Dialects To Business Categories
Late last month, Google announced that it was adding 1,000 new categories in the new Places dashboard for businesses. This is an effort to significantly expand the breadth of available categories internationally. The announcement was made in the Google product…
Google Makes Changes To Business Page Creation
Google announced that it is making some changes to how business pages are created. Businesses creating listings in the new Places for Business dashboard will no longer have to wait to complete PIN verification before they can see the +page.…
Google Places Adds A Slew Of Business Categories
Google is working on improving and expanding the business categories for Google Places For Business for countries around the world. In fact, they’re adding over 1,000 new categories in the Places dashboard. Google Business community manager Jade Wang posted an…
Google+ Local iOS App Is No More, Use Google Maps
Google has retired the standalone Google+ Local app for iOS. 9to5Mac first reported on an email that Google sent around (which has since made its way to other publications) that it would be retired as of August 7th, though the…
The Ones That Make Your Business Look Good In Google’s Local Results
Back in January, Google revealed that Google Business Photos were being used by 100,000 businesses, a number that has no doubt grown significantly in the first half of 2013. In late May, Google announced the expansion of the program into…
Google Adds New Business Owner Link On Local Results
Google has added a new link to manage local business listings to search results pages on the right-hand side. Google’s Jade Wang made the announcement in a Google Groups thread, saying: Managing your business’s presence on Google is now easier…
Google Places For Business Interface Gets Update
Google announced the launch of an update to Google Places for Business. With the update comes a simpler interface, more integration with other Google products, and quicker updates for edits. “The upgraded interface is simpler and more intuitive, so the…
Google Updates Spam Detection For Reviews, Warns SEOs
Google announced that it has made some improvements to its spam detection algorithms that increased the number of reviews that appear on some Google+ Local pages. Do you think things have gotten better? Let us know in the comments. Google’s…
Local Search Is Where Facebook Could Quickly Take A Stab At Google
On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled Graph Search, and I’ve been doing little but reading and writing about it ever since. There’s one conclusion I’ve drawn about it so far, above all else, and that’s that we have no idea how big…
Google Is Letting Anonymous Users Review Businesses
Online reviews are a hot button issue right now, particularly as one case involving Yelp reviews has attracted some media attention. You can read about that here. Basically, a woman was sued for defaming remarks, as she claimed in reviews…
Google Adds Store Interior Photography Access To Local Search Results
Google is now highlighting its indoor photography for businesses from search results pages, making the imagery much more visible to users. Businesses who have been able to participate in this get the added bonus of letting customers browse their store…
Google Launches New Zagat App For Android (And It’s Free)
Google has launched a new Zagat app for Android devices in one of a handful of recent Google+ Local-related announcements from the company. And in case you were wondering, it does come with a Google flavor. “While our ratings and…
This Business Is Furious With Google For Deleting Hundreds Of Reviews
In May, Google announced Google+ Local, which would replace Place Pages, and overhaul Google’s entire local business review search results. We’ve written in the past about how the transition may be costing business clicks, and we’re still seeing some pretty…