It also looked like a pretty substantial change from the existing Google Maps, so I’ve been anxious to find time to sit down and give it a test drive. That’s what I’m doing in this post: Kicking the tires and making some notes on what it looks like, what it does, and what it might mean to small businesses.

The first important thing to emphasize is that this is an overhaul strictly of maps.google.com; it doesn’t represent a change to the local search experience on google.com, which is what the vast majority of Google local searchers will see and use. I don’t know how many people begin a search on maps.google.com, but I suspect it’s a small percentage compared to those that begin on google.com.

With that in mind, let’s look at…

The New Google Maps

Loading up the home page takes me to a local map that’s customized specifically for me. There are a handful of businesses called out on the map. On the image below, the ones I highlighted in red are places that I’ve rated or reviewed in Google Maps/Places/Local/Plus over the years. The ones highlighted in black are not places I’ve rated or reviewed — only one is an actual business, “Columbia Point Golf Course.”

(You can click this and most other images to see a full-size version.)

Each of those businesses/places that show up on the map has a mouseover action that brings up some very basic information, as shown here:

And then, if you click the business name on the map, you get what Google is called a “card” about the business. The card has all of the basic details you’d expect to find. There are two things that seem to be missing in the business card/data: a category and a link to the business’ Google+ Local Page. (The latter being missing may seem odd, but given the pressure Google is facing from world governments on the topic of favoriting its own content, I think it’s wise to leave out the Google+ page link here and only link to the business website. I haven’t done enough testing to see what happens if the business has no website; will the link go to Google+ in that scenario?)

In the screenshot above, here’s what each link you see does:

• Open hours: overlays the business hours right above the main info card
• Directions: removes the info cards and brings up the Point-A-to-Point-B directions interface
• Save: saves to my places
• IceHarbor.com link: opens a new tab and launches the company website
• 27 reviews: opens the company’s Google+ Local Page (unclaimed) in a new tab
• Menu: opens the restaurant’s Urbanspoon menu page in a new tab

If this business had any Zagat information, it would show below the Street View image. If it had any interior photos available, Google would show them next to the Street View image. Speaking of which, that Street View image is also a clickable link, which leads to a full screen (“immersive” is Google’s word for it) Street View experience.

(I should note that this business has some NAP problems. That Street View image is of its more industrial bottling location; the restaurant/pub that I’ve been to and reviewed is a few blocks away and is MUCH nicer.)

Back to the home page now. In the lower right, there’s a small display that brings up a carousel of local images — not necessarily related to what’s already on the map, but just a selection of area images that are being pulled in from Panoramio. Clicking on any of the images in the carousel leads to an equally immersive display.

So that’s a look at what the new Maps home page will offer when it’s live for all users. Let’s play with it a little more, starting with…

Local Search on the New Google Maps

Let’s first do a general categorical search. You’ll see a pretty dramatic change as soon as you do a local search like “car dealers.” The search results show up right on the map, no separate column with the blue links and business info. (And note, too, that the personalized businesses that showed up on my home page are mostly still showing up here.)

Google is having some accuracy issues with these search results. The locations highlighted in black aren’t car dealers — they’re repair shops, tire stores or something else. And the location highlighted in red is really bizarre. It says A1oils.com — a business that, according to its website, is based in Florida. Whoops.

Here’s the first sighting of an ad — below the search box and options in the upper left. Those “cards” fold up when the mouse is moved away and expand when the mouse moves back to the upper left.

This screen is different from the home page. Hovering over a search result only brings up a small display with the business name and how many reviews it has. As best I can tell, businesses with five or more reviews will also get stars and a numeric rating on the new/old 5-point scale.

The search filters are interesting in the upper left. The first card lets me see results from “Top reviewers” or from “Your circles.” Here’s how using those changes this map/page of results:

Top reviewers

This filter eliminates all but two results, one of which is actually a Firestone repair center, not a car dealer.

Your circles
This filter gives the impression that Google Maps is broken, because it zooms in on just one business, and it’s not even a car dealer: It’s a Sonic Drive-In.

If I had more Tri-Cities residents in my Google+ circles, this filter might produce better results. Or maybe the problem isn’t my circles, it’s low adoption of Google+ out here in the real world. (It’s actually probably a combination of the two.)

There’s one other search result option/filter in the upper left: “Go to list of top results.” That leads out of the new maps experience and into something more closely resembling the old maps search results.

Okay, that was what you get with a categorical search. Let’s move on to a specific business search.

If I start typing in the name of my wife’s business listing, Google autocomplete kicks in like this:

I have no explanation for those other four options below Cari. Moving on….

Choosing the matching result brings up a page/map similar to what you saw above for the brewery/restaurant, with business info coming from my wife’s Google+ Local Page.

And last, but not least, let’s take a look at…

Report a Problem in the New Google Maps

The “report a problem” link shows up in tiny text in the bottom right of every screen. Staying on the screen where my wife’s business is listed, here’s what shows up when I click the link:

This is a nice interface. Clicking any of the individual data pieces, or the checkboxes, opens a text area where you can explain what’s wrong.

The only thing that doesn’t produce that display is the “Edit Details” link at the bottom, which instead opens Google Mapmaker in a new tab, with options to make edits to the business listing.

So that wraps up my tour of the new Google Maps. If there’s something I didn’t show that you’re dying to see, leave a comment below that’s as specific as you can be and I’ll do my best to make a screenshot or two and do another post.

In the meantime, be sure to read Google’s announcement for more detail, especially about how the map is customized to each user and changes the more you use it. This’ll be rolling out to people over the next couple months, as I recall, and you can request an invite now.

Final Thought

The new Google Maps is definitely a snazzy upgrade, but from just kicking the tires over the past hour or so, I already have a developing thought about where this could be a mistake in terms of local search and discovery. I’ll keep thinking on that and maybe post about it if the thought sticks.

Your thoughts on what’s above? Comments are open.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

A Tour of the New Google Maps [15 Screenshots]

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Indeed, I did. Google even announced it on their blog, too.

This, you may know, is something I’ve been advocating for time and time again, so it was nice to see that Google finally realized the error of a 30-point rating scale.

That said, Zagat scores aren’t completely dead. In the new Google Maps, some business listings will continue to display a small Zagat icon and users can click that for additional Zagat-based information about the business. As Google explained in the blog post:

Zagat reviews are still available throughout Google, and you’ll continue to see Zagat throughout Google products with editorial reviews and curated lists awarded to notable places.

But the primary scoring system for local businesses is reverting back to the standard, widely understood 5-point/star scale. And that’s how it should be.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Google Finally Starts to Kill Zagat Scores

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http://localmarketlaunch.com

Professor Maps, AKA Mike Blumenthal, has written an easy-to-understand overview of the risks involved in call tracking, along with his advice for when and where it might be okay to do it and not hurt your local search visibility. He covers the use of call tracking phone numbers in four areas:

• offline (“you would be better off tracking incoming calls manually”)
• Google+ Local (“a no brainer in not being good for a call tracking number”)
• the local ecosystem (“where implementing call tracking can cause the biggest problems with Google”)
• your website (“if not done properly it can cause immeasurable harm to your Google local results”>

That’s just a sample of the advice. Best to go read the full article:

A Guide to Call Tracking and Local Search

And be sure to read through the comments, too, for more advice and discussion on a very important local search topic.

Postscript: Going through feeds and Twitter streams, I just found this highly-related and also worthwhile article from another fellow Local U faculty member. Will Scott writes, Why Call Tracking Numbers in Local SEO Make Me Angry.

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Call Tracking: The Risks & Advice from Professor Maps

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Local Market Launch delivers business listings management and local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses, franchises, and local SMBs through a growing network of channel partners, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers, broadcast media companies, digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs).
http://localmarketlaunch.com

If you have something that you think I might be able to answer or help with, or just have an idea for a blog post that you’d like to share, let me know by using the contact form on this site.

Note: Almost all of my recent consulting experience has been in the areas of social media, blogging, content development and SEO. Very little of it has been on local search/SEO. So if you have specific questions in that area, I’ll probably pass your idea on to my partners at Local U.

Thx in advance – I hope you’ll share some great questions/ideas with me!

- Matt

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

You Ask, I Blog

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Local Market Launch delivers business listings management and local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses, franchises, and local SMBs through a growing network of channel partners, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers, broadcast media companies, digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs).
http://localmarketlaunch.com

In my presentation, I mention several web sites, articles, and other links that you may not have had time to jot down while I was speaking. If that’s the case, here are all the references I made in chronological order:

Stats
Nielsen: Social Media Report 2012
Localeze/15miles: Local Search Study: 55% of consumers likely to use a small business if it has a social networking presence
Search Engine Land: What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?

Blogs
Jeremiah Owyang: Web Strategy: How To Evolve Your Irrelevant Corporate Website
HubSpot: Active Business Blogs Draw 6.9 Times More Organic Search Traffic Than Non-Bloggers
HubSpot: Study Shows Business Blogging Leads to 55% More Website Visitors
Dr. Cynthia Bailey: Dr. Cynthia Bailey: Skin Care Blog
Mike Blumenthal: Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Facebook
Facebook for Businesses
Estia Restaurant (Facebook Page example)
Report: Only 3% to 7.5% of Fans View Posts From A Facebook Page
Small Business Search Marketing: Photos Draw Most Facebook Interactions, Links Draw the Least
Facebook Graph Search

Twitter: Getting Started
Zahav Restaurant
Twitter – Who to Follow

If you have any questions or feedback about my presentation or the session in general, feel free to leave a comment below. There’s also a Contact button at the top of the page. I’d love to hear from you!

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Welcome Local U Philadelphia Attendees (#localu)

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Local Market Launch delivers business listings management and local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses, franchises, and local SMBs through a growing network of channel partners, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers, broadcast media companies, digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs).
http://localmarketlaunch.com

The number that caught my eye was this:

Yelp has 1.1 million claimed local business profiles.

That came out during the earnings call. It’s the total number of claimed Yelp business profiles as of the end of Q1. The company said it’s a 58 percent increase over Q1 of 2012.

How’s it compare to other services?

Well, we know that Facebook most recently said it has 15 million Pages, but not all of those are local businesses — that number includes Community pages and other categories, too.

As far as I know, Google hasn’t reported numbers in a long time. Back in December 2011, it said there were 8 million claimed Place Pages.

I’m also not aware of how many businesses have claimed their Foursquare profiles, but I’d guess it’s significantly less than Yelp’s 1.1 million figure.

Yelp also reported that it has almost 45,000 paying local business accounts as of the end of Q1, which is a 63 percent increase over a year ago … and about 39.1 million total reviews, up 42 percent from this time last year. (Note: That review count includes even the filtered reviews that Yelp doesn’t actively show to users.)

Here’s a look at some of Yelp’s numbers in visual form.

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

Yelp: 1.1 Million Claimed Local Business Profiles

Advertisement: Local Presence for National Brands
Local Market Launch delivers business listings management and local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses, franchises, and local SMBs through a growing network of channel partners, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers, broadcast media companies, digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs).
http://localmarketlaunch.com