I recently learned that Google Maps is doing away with the “community edit” option on local business listings. This is great news for business owners that have been fighting to keep their Google Maps listings spam-free and professional. Prior to this change, it was possible for anyone with a Google account to edit a business listing and the changes would automatically go live unchecked. This gave competitors, ex-employees, unhappy customers, etc the opportunity to “get even” with a business owner by making whatever changes they wished to a listing. These changes are to blame for false information which, for some, ended up costing companies that were affected a lot of business.

However, now any changes that are made will be manually checked by Google Maps staff to determine if the edits are correct or not. I am not sure how many edits Google will be reviewing or what their process is, but I would expect that there will be a few days lag between submitting edits and getting approval. Hopefully, the edits won’t take too long to approve! Business owners should sleep easier knowing that their listings are no longer at risk; just make sure that you claim your business listing! All of these new updates to Google Maps have left me wondering what they will think of next!

Google will begin sending photographers to a city near you to take photos of the inside of your business. This new feature will complement your Google Places (previously called Google Local Business Center) listing. Instead just having Street View photos of your business, Google is now adding “a new way for you to showcase your business to the world.”

And to top it all off, Google will send the photographers to your location for free! All you have to do is apply.

Right now the Google photographers are only visiting select cities in the US, Japan, and Australia. But Google says “demand will help us decide where to send our photographers next.”

Select US Cities Google has photographers:

• Atlanta, GA
• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Denver, CO
• Detroit, MI
• Houston, TX
• Indianapolis, IN
• Jersey City, NJ
• Hoboken, NJ
• Kansas City, KS
• Last vegas, NV
• Los Angeles, CA
• Miami, FL
• Minneapolis, MN
• Nashville, TN
• New York, NY
• Philadelphia, PA
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Portland, OR
• San Antonio, TX
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• San Jose, CA
• Seattle, WA
• St. Lois, MO
• Washington D.C.

Learn more about the Google Business Photos and the select cities they’re in.

It looks like the Google Local Business Center has added a nifty little feature to their dashboard. The box is labeled “Post to Your Place Page” and it is almost like “sticky note” that goes on your local business listing detail page.

This feature is almost like a status update that a business can post to their listings page similar to updating Facebook or Twitter. The listing expires after 30 days but can be refreshed more frequently than that. The business owner is limited to 160 characters for this message as well.

It will be interesting to see how/if businesses will start to use this feature and if it has any effect on the local business listing’s ranking. Any creative ideas on how you’ll use this feature?

I was browsing the internet this morning and ran across a post from Mike Blumenthal. Its a great resource for the Google Local Business Center. When you’re submitting your company’s local listing you have to pick the categories that best applies. Google doesn’t provide(that I know of) a complete list, so Mike put one together along with synonyms. The list of local categories will help pick the ones you’re going to fit your business under. Here are some examples:

Auto Insurance Agency allstate, automobile, car insurance, claim, claims, geico, quote, quotes, rates, state farm

Bridal Shop – bridal gowns, bride, davids bridal, gowns, prom, prom dresses, shoppe, shops, wedding dress, wedding gowns

Cell Phone Store – best, cell phones, cellphone, cellular, cingular, phones, prepaid, sprint, verizon, verizon wireless

Pet Trainer – agility, dog, dog obedience, dog trainer, dog training, dogs, obedience, puppy, trainers, training

Wholesale Jeweler – bracelet, bracelets, charms, earrings, jewelery, jewellery, jewelry, jewlery, necklace, rings

I would check it out and bookmark it for future reference if you do anything with local. Its a great list of categories none the less for other uses if you need quick synonyms. Mike also give some more details of the list in his blog post.

I don’t think that Local SEO gets the recognition that it deserves; it is a very valuable resource to all SEO’s. Local SEO includes many different strategies with the most popular being local search engine submissions. These submissions are a great way to increase your site’s link popularity and attract targeted users that are more likely to convert. Utilizing local search will help increase rankings for location-specific searches such as “cleveland ohio pediatrician”. Local SEO helps users find relevant local information that they are searching for. There are many products and services that people search for, but they need some help finding appropriate information. For example, if you live in San Francisco, California, I highly doubt that you want to read about a dentist whose office is located in New Hampshire. And even though a dentist in Los Angeles is much closer, you probably could care even less about that dentist (it’s over 350 miles away!).

I found an article on SearchEngineLand that outlines “10 Fundamentals of Local SEO”. It points out areas of local SEO that need to be utilized, including claiming business lists on the major search engines (Google, MSN, & Yahoo!), putting your business in relevant categories, utilizing consistent information in business listings, and more. According to SearchEngineLand, local search engine submissions “give the search engines more trust in your business and improve your chances at ranking (not to mention prevent someone else from hijacking your listing).” It also important to make sure that your business is listed in the right category because it “plays a central role in your business’s ability to show up for your target searches.” Check out “10 Fundamentals of Local SEO” to learn more about Local SEO.

One of the biggest things people think about when starting a business is the name they are going to pick. It can be drawn out process sometimes! Do I name it after myself, do I come up with something catchy and brand-able, or maybe I just keep it super simple. Something that isn’t really considered is Google. As the internet evolves especially in the local space, Google is evolving and setting guidelines for business on how to play in their Local Business Center. The Local Business Center allows business owners to claim their business’ listing to control the information that is provided when people do a search on Google Maps or in the universal search local packs.

Matt McGee wrote a post on Search Engine Land called Google Targets Spammers With New Local Business Listing Guidelines. He cites 2 other recaps of the changes one by Mike Blumenthal and Barry Schwartz. He says:

According to Mike’s tracking, there are five new guidelines:

1. The business name on Google Maps must be your full legal business name.
2. PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
3. A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.
4. Use a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.
5. If possible, use an email account with a domain that matches your business URL. For example, if your business website is www.giraffetoys.com, a matching email address would be you@giraffetoys.com.

Google’s Local Business Center has been trying to fight spam and this is another set of guidelines they are rolling out to try and control that. How could this affect your business? Say you sell tractors. If you call your business “Bob’s Shop”, it doesn’t really say what you do. Remember, the search engines are driven by keywords. Now if your business was named “Bob’s Tractor Sales”, that describes your business and gives the search engines something more to work with when their rank your local business listing. If you’re going to start a company, think of how Google might perceive your business based on its name. It does also help consumers if they have a descriptive business name to look at.

Earlier this Spring, YouTube unveiled a push into news video by offering a new local feature that offers an online outlet for local news stations, local newspapers, radio stations and even some college sources and has dubbed this new feature “News Near You“. This new feature uses the Internet address of a visitor’s PC to determine the user’s location and whether any partners are located within a 100-mile radius.

The New York Times (NYT) reports that earlier this summer, YouTube “invited more than 25,000 news sources listed on Google News to become video suppliers. The site is also promoting videos from ABC News, The Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets. This year, it began featuring breaking news videos — including ones submitted by citizens in Iran, where protests are being captured by cellphone users — on its home page”.

NYT also reports that  “to date, nearly 200 news outlets have signed up with YouTube to post news packages and split the revenue from the advertisements that appear with them. In addition, Google searches now show YouTube videos alongside news articles, helping the videos reach a wider audience. But news media companies may have reasons to be wary. Few TV stations have figured out how replicate profits on the Internet. YouTube can easily act as another competitor”.

It will be interesting to see if these local videos will be watched and more importantly will the local news outlets be able to profit from “News Near You”!

For the last several years, businesses have been looking to the web for less expensive advertising & marketing options.  With the current state of the economy, local businesses are now investigating online opportunities  & jumping on the local search bandwagon!

“With yellow pages being out of date before they’re even off the printing press, it’s no surprise that Local Search on the Web has taken the place of dusty old “yellows” as the preferred method for finding local products and services. “

Some benefits of local search include:

• increased Search Engine visibility
• increased local traffic to the site
• inexpensive local visibility & awareness
• increased traffic to your local brick & mortar business

“When it comes to Web Marketing, local businesses actually have certain advantages over businesses with a national presence.  Instead of having to compete on a national scale, local businesses can focus their web marketing efforts on a more targeted geographic area and even find success a bit easier.”

Read about how local search works, best practices and tips on how to integrate social marketing into your local web marketing strategies.

Congratulations to my uncle, Jeff Monter for receiving Canton Advertising Club’s 2008 Advertising Person of the Year! Jeff is Vice President of Creative at Innis Maggiore Group, a local Canton advertising firm that’s just a few miles away from TKG. Jeff is one of the most creative & talented artists I know – congratulations again Uncle Jeff.