Look at the Quality of Video You Could Make

Below is a slide presentation I created with the fantanstic Animoto software.  The photos could just as easily be of your business.  You can make a free 30 second video.  Just register as soon as you get to the site.  If you want a full length video like the one below it is $30 per year.  If you would like my help creating a video email me.  al@mymapinfo.com

Video is the Magic Elixer

One of the ways to power your local listings into the top 7 search results is to add a video to your Google map listings.

And now it is more inexpensive than ever.  You can create a professional grade video for free.  Click on the icon below and register for free.  This allows you to create a 30 second video.  Want a longer video.  It’s only $30 per year.  You really have to check this site out to see how incredible it is.

New Local Center Guidelines

Local Business Center Guidelines

Business Listings in Local Business Center must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world. Google reserves the right to suspend access to Local Business Center or to other Google Services to individuals or businesses violating these guidelines.

Ownership

• Only business owners or authorized representatives may claim their business listings on Google Maps.

Business Name

• Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
• Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.
• Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.

Physical Location

• Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
• PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
• Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
• Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.
• Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
• The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
• A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.

URL & Phone

• Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center.
• Provide one URL that best identifies your individual business location.
• Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or ‘refer’ users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.

Custom Attributes & Description

• Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title, address or category fields.
• Please see this page of the LBC User Guide for examples of acceptable custom attributes.

Best Practices

• Use a shared, business email account, if multiple users will be updating your business listing.
• 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.

Contact Us

• Report Spam on Maps.
• Request Reinclusion if your Local Business Center account has been suspended.
• Request Verification for your bulk upload.
• Post in our Help Forum.

For more information about the Local Business Center, please visit the Local Business Center user guide. //

The Best Condensed Blurb on SEO for Websites

This is one of the best condensed blurbs on Search Engine Optimization for websites that I have read.  Many of the techniques carry over into local search optimization.

http://www.seocompany.ca/seo/seo-techniques.html

Correcting Duplicate Listings On Google Maps

From Google

Got Duplicates? Help for Local Business Center users

Thursday, May 7, 2009 | 4:55 PM In some cases, adding listings, claiming listings, and correcting other information on Google Maps can lead to duplicates of your listing appearing in your Local Business Center account. In the Help Forum, we often get questions about how to remove these duplicates. These are the steps that we recommend:

Disclaimer: Before you get started, it’s important to remember that a listing contains information merged from multiple sources. Suspending a duplicate listing could cause the original listing to be removed from Maps, because all sources of information for both the original and the duplicate might be suppressed.

1. Choose the listing that you’d prefer to keep in your account. Make sure that you have all your enhanced content (photos, business hours, description) attached to this listing and this listing only.
2. For duplicates of this listing in your account (the ones you want to remove), remove all enhanced information. Keep only required information, like the business title, address, and onephone number.
3. Submit these changes and verify as necessary.
4. Now, sit tight for a couple of weeks – just for good measure.
5. Delete the duplicates from your account, choosing Remove this listing from my Local Business Center account.

That’s it! Now you should only have one entry to control the details of your business listing. Be patient with updating certain kinds of information, like pictures — they should eventually appear in Maps.

Photo Problems with Bulk Uploads

I was recently working on some business listings that were bulk uploaded.   At first there seemed to be a problem with the photos.  Ten photos were uploaded.  However, when you looked in the LBC only 5 photos were appearing.  They were all in the top row of five.  The role below these photos were filled with small boxes indicating broken links.  My assumption was that the photos weren’t appearing in the business listing and I deleted a few to reload them manually.  But I was wrong.  The photos were showing in the business listing on the web.  The broken

New Verification Form For Bulk Uploads

Copied from the Google Help Support Group.

We’re excited to announce that verification for bulk uploads is now available to business owners who who have already provided a bulk upload in the Local Business Center account.

The Bulk Upload Verification form is now available at: http://maps.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=feeds_verify

Before you fill out this form, please keep the following in mind:
1) You must have a bulk upload of at least 10 listings in your account to qualify.
2) Bulk upload verification does not affect individually added listings
3) You must be the business owner of the businesses provided in your bulk upload.

Questions can be added to this thread – this will help us better understand the FAQs necessary.

Cheers,
Maps Guide Brianna

If you’re going to fill out our new form
Provide us with your business information in this bulk upload verification form. If you are not the business owner for these listings, please do not fill out this form.

What does “Awaiting Next Update” really mean?

Google says at Understanding Your Local Business Account:

Awaiting next update

The means that your listing is verified and has passed our content check, but it is awaiting our next data push. It should be live within 2-3 weeks.

If your listing has been ‘Awaiting Next Update’ for over a month, we recommend verifying this listing manually by phone or PIN Mailer (note that you can only verify an individual listing, not one that you’ve submitted as part of a bulk feed).You cannot currently verify a FEED listing right now.

If you uploaded a a bulk listing, it could be that there was no information in it that isn’t already on Google Maps. If this is the case, then we don’t add the bulk feed to our index.

Google Caffeine

Google is beta testing a new browser with the code name Caffeine.  You can try it here.

It is supposedly much faster and seemed faster to me when I tried it.  I thing the cautionary note for businesses and SEO types is that Google suggested that Caffeine could change search results, which raises the prospect of companies’ needing to change their search engine optimization (SEO) to protect their Google ranking.  Google also says, “It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

I’m worried about the other dimensions.  My fear is the Google goal to return search results based on the searches previous Internet history.  It will surely shake up SEO techniques.

This is already happening in a limited degree if you are letting Google store your web history.   I have already seen this while working optimizing websites.  If you work with a business listing over and over again, Google will return that listing with a hire ranking for my search, but the client on a different computer and IP address doesn’t see the same thing.

I had to change the options in Google’s Web History widget to get results not influenced by my previous searches.

Are you in the top ten search results?  You can be.
More info.

Google Provides Tips on How to Optimize Your Site

Optimize your local business listings

Here are a few ways to optimize your local business listing Make sure your listing is complete and accurate. Include optional information like images and videos to help your listing stand out. Add information like opening hours, payment types, and additional details to help users choose among search results. Make sure that the location of your business on the map is correct so users can find you. Remember, you can always drag the map marker to the exact location of your business. Make sure to list your authoritative business website as your homepage, since Google uses information from your homepage to help improve search results. Of course, be sure that your business name, physical address, and phone number(s) are correct in your business listing. See the Local Business Quality Guidelines to learn more. Choose the most appropriate, specific categories for your business. Pick a category from the list of suggestions to help Google to show your business for the right searches (although you can always enter your own category if the Local Business Center doesn’t suggest one that fits your business). Don’t be afraid to choose specific categories instead of broad ones. The important thing is that the categories are accurate and describe your business well. This information is also available in our Help Centers. To work these tips into your business listing, log in to www.google.com/lbc.