We are very happy to announce that the next GetListed Local University is going to be in Denver and will be held Thursday, October 21 at the Sheraton Denver Tech. Pricing for the event is $129 and with the discount code: MBDenver your cost will only be $89. There will be morning and afternoon events and you may sign up for single tickets here.

The event is being coordinated by the folks at seOverflow and sponsored by Bing, Localeze, UBL and Deluxe. The speaker line up includes the usual suspects of great speakers: David Mihm, Matt McGee, Mary Bowling, Maryam Gholami (Bing), Ed Reese and myself.

Like all previous Local Universities, this event is specifically targeted to local small businesses. One of our primary goals is to connect attendees with reputable local marketers to help answer questions and improve their visibility long after the conclusion of the seminar. We realize that when we are long gone from Denver, these folks will still often need the assistance of professionals in their local market.

To serve this need we are offering a great opportunity for local agencies to expose potential clients (and junior staff) to the concepts and ideas of Local University with a specific package targeted to their needs: the Local University Group “7-Pack”.

Local University Group “7-Pack”

Tickets for each of our Local University events are available in blocks of seven at the discounted price of $399 per block ($57* per ticket).

7-PACK BENEFITS
• • Over 50% off each ticket (normally priced at $129)
• • Increased credibility among clients & attendees
• • Inclusion of your logo & website mention as a Local U partner
• • Special reserved seating at event
• • Inclusion of your company/organization logo in rotating partners deck
• • Networking with presenters and other attendees

Reserve Your 7-Pack Today »

*Larger blocks of tickets are also available at this same $57 rate. Inquire for more information

I am looking forward to meeting you in Denver!

Google Tags rolled out nationally at the end of June. Several questions that have been often asked about Tags are: How well do they perform? & How do searchers respond to them? Do they attract additional business?

I have one client, Moses and Rooth Attorneys at Law in Orlando, that added the tags immediately after their national rollout on June 28th. We now have 4 weeks of before and after data so as to be able to compare results. While it is only a sample of one and should not be construed as representing a general truth, the results seem promising.

We chose the “coupon” Tag not so much for the coupon value but so as to be able to add content to the listing. While the coupon itself didn’t generate very much direct activity,   the overall “actions” were significantly higher on fewer “impressions” . The listing received more than a 100% increase in the number of actions while the listing received ~20 % fewer impressions.

(click to view larger)

I would caution that this result can not be taken as a general guideline for success. It is a single month’s comparison for only one listing and the reliability of the statistics in Places are erratic at best.

The results are likely to be different in different industries. It is also very early in the life of Tags so very few other lawyers in market had yet taken advantage of them (only one other showed in the search results). That all being said, it does appear to have had a positive influence on end user actions.

What have been your experiences with Tags?

The Comscore Search report for June has been released. Google had 10.29 billion searches. If roughly the same percentage of searches (20%) had local intent as Google has indicated then there were approximately 2,187,200,000 searches in the U.S. on Google’s main search site last month that were local in nature.

Across all of the search engines, again assuming roughly the same % of local intent, there were 3,187,000,000. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you have some real numbers.

Since their inception, Google Coupons have been invisible to most searchers and offered little value to the SMB. Buried deep within the local listings and no front page exposure, they seemed to be the poor step child of the Google Maps world. Google Coupons are now beginning to be exposed to the the light of day and Google seems to be taking them more seriously. Will they soon be given more prominence?

I just received the following email from Google Coupon Support (who knew that there was actually a person or group that provided Google Coupon Support?):

Hello Mike Blumenthal,

This is to notify you that the following coupons in your Google Places account will expire in 6 days on 7/15/10.

• Jewelry Appraisal $40 OFF

We are sorry to bother you but we thought we’d let you know early, in case you wished to extend their lifetime or replace them. Please visit Google Places to extend the expiry date of your coupons or to replace them with new ones. After expiration, the coupons will no longer be displayed until they are renewed.

Thanks,

Google Coupon Support

(Note to Google: It is no bother, I actually like getting the occasional email from you. Even if the email is automated, it’s nice to at least know someone is at the Coupon switch…although I do find the tone oddly deferential)

Late last year, Google actively started cleaning out old coupons from listings and requiring an ending date be applied to all coupons. In August, Google allowed businesses to link directly to their coupons. Last November, Google created an option to show (but still hidden) coupons in the mobile environment. With the introduction of the paid Tags product, a business is now able to highlight their coupon in association with their listing and it they were ranking for a 7-Pack, it will show in the main SERP results.

And now this email communication reminding me to re-up a my (still nearly invisible) coupon. Google seems to be getting downright chatty in a new, more forward facing way as they start to promote themselves to SMBs.

I have long felt that coupons had a large untapped potential for certain business segments within Maps. It was always annoying to have the feature in place, all dressed but with nowhere to go. It seems, however slowly, that coupons are starting to poke their head out from the netherworlds of the interior of Maps. Perhaps Coupons will in fact rise from the dead within Maps and achieve their promotional potential for SMBs

It appears that Google has rolled out changes to the display of the Local Onebox showing on the main search engine results page. While I do not have a large enough sample to know if the change is permanent and shows everywhere, I have tested it on several ISPs and via a proxy server to know that it is very widespread and as such seems unlikely to be a test. The change mirrors some of the elements seen last week in the Google Maps 7-Pack test. (Click to view larger)

Note some of the differences:
- the businesses website now shows above the OneBox pushing the OneBox slightly further down the page
- More Info has become the branded Place Page, directly under the business name
- There is an additional large and prominent map pin next the business name
- Review numbers, and one presumes review stars no longer show when there are less than a certain number

For comparison here is a screen shot of the same company’s* OneBox taken on July 1:

It is interesting to note similarities between this new OneBox display and last week’s 7-Pack test; the use of the branded phrase “Place Page” in lieu of “more information”, the integration with the web results and the use of a larger more obvious Map Pin.

The reviews have not been removed on all OneBoxes. On businesses that have significant review levels they are still showing. Note on this example the inclusion of three web page results above the OneBox:

Full Disclosure: Moses and Rooth Attorneys at Law -(p: 407-377-0150) are criminal defense attorneys that are currently a local search client of mine. However, the only reason that I am using them as an example is that it is the only current before and after screen shot that I have.

This evening Google has announced a plan to provide 30 days of Google Tags free (hat tip to Taylor Cimala of Digital Third Coast Internet Marketing & Jeffrey Magner of Trumpet Local Media ). The following is being sent to businesses with listings in Google Places (It is of interest that even Google still feels the need to note that it was formerly referred to as the Local Business Center):

********************
Clearly the income opportunities for Google with this product are significant both short and long term. They have recently noted that 2 million businesses have claimed their listing in Maps. If only 10% of those users sign up for Tags, Google will generate $60 million per year.

It strikes me that Tags will create a virtuous cycle of sign ups for Google. As businesses see them being used by competitors and appear on other searches that they do, they will be inclined to sign up for them or at least inquire about them and sign up for a Google Places account.

There is large upside income potential looking out 12-24 months. If Google manages to get to 5 million claimed listings and 30% of those businesses sign up for Tags they would be looking at $450 million annually.

It is no wonder that they are playing with new 7-pack layout.

I lived in Kenya for several years in the mid 70s. About every 6 weeks I would take the train from Nairobi to the funky seaport of Mombassa and upon arrival at the coast, would frequent a local bar where the beer was cheap, the ambiance authentic and “working” women would congregate. I would enter, they would buzz around me for a few minutes until they realized that I was just getting a beer and would soon return to their tables. On occasion I would strike up a conversation and learn the women’s back story which usually involved a missing or worthless husband and the need to send their children to school or to support aging parents.

It was always a cordial environment until the sailors from a recently ported US Navy ship would hit the scene. It would become a mosh pit of human wants and needs with a frenzy of negotiation and resolution. Human relations had been reduced to the value of a few shillings. It was never clear who was the exploited and who was the exploiter. To think that it was victimless was and is naive but the Navy obviously was aware of the scene and for reasons of their own, never intervened to change it.

The other day, I was looking at the listings for Web Design Melbourne.  I was examining the listings there on behalf of Paul of Simple I.D., a hard working web design firm in Melbourne, that was struggling with the affects of a recent move and lamenting his invisibility within Maps.

It quickly became clear that every cheap and not so cheap trick to manipulate Google Maps to get an edge was in play. It reminded me of that  scene at that bar so many years ago, a mosh pit of base human activity  where the only important thing in the end was to gain the edge and get what was wanted.

So why is Google letting these listings stand?

As I dug through the 7 Pack, it was like an archeological dig through the annals of Map spam. Obviously every business name in the list included Business Title Spam. Who knew that there were so many firms in town named “Web Design Melbourne”?

But there was also a full array of category cramming (getting more than your allotted 5), category geo-spamming, hijacked unclaimed listings and more.

The most interesting of the 7 was the number one listing for “Get Started – Web Design & Website Development” that had employed none of the obvious tricks except title spamming but was using a large number of its own sites (I stopped counting at 6 or so) to create a citation/link farm to game the system.

It became clear to me, that Paul, taking the honest, long term approach would have little chance until Google intervened and cleaned up the listings.

Why they haven’t is a mystery.

In the US, they had long ago stopped showing local search results on searches for web designers. At the time, it was widely assumed that they had done so by hand. Each and every tactic in use by these listers has been algorithmically banned or punished. One presumes if they can clean up much of the locksmith spam they can deal with a few web designers, who seem downright tame in comparison.

Clearly, Google must be aware of the listings being spammy and could have removed them. Why then arn’t they being taken down?

Searchers looking for a design firm in Melbourne are only presented with less than honest companies that are willing to break the rules to gain any advantage. The businesses that do play by the rules are left to pick up, not even, the crumbs of the results.

One can only assume that Google, has some motive in keeping these listings active. Perhaps they are using the information, like Carter Maslan has pointed out, to better understand the tactics of spammers and further “inoculate” Maps for the future. Perhaps, from Google’s point of view, there is a greater good to be gained long haul.

However, as in the bar in Mombassa, this is not victimless activity. Google, like the Navy, should make no mistake; there are consequences in allowing this to go on. Experimenting with the lives of the small businesses involved, if that is what they are doing, is a questionable practice at best. Allowing searchers to find only those suspect businesses most willing to break the rules is contrary to Google’s oft stated goal of focusing on the user’s needs.

Regardless of the reason that Google is letting these results continue to show, both the users and the honest businesses suffer and to some extent, Google does as well. The results should be cleaned up.

Update 7/6 1:02 P.M.: Google’s Elaine Filadelfo (Global Communications & Public Affairs) noted: It is an experiment — we’re continually trying out new tweaks to a portion of our users.

Google is always testing new layouts and changes to the main SERPs but these screens shot captured on July 3rd & 4th by Linda Buquet of Catalyst eMarketing indicate Google’s willingness to experiment with bold departures from past displays for Local results. I was unable to replicate Linda’s results although she saw them over several days on different searches:

Here are Linda’s notes from her emails:

Search term: Dentist Chicago (FYI I am using FF) Double checked and it’s not some weird caching error because other dentist/city searches come up the old way.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=Dentist+Chicago&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGIC_en___US345&ie=UTF-8

In case I’m only seeing it on my datacenter and you are seeing something different, I’m attaching screenshots.

1)    The Places listings are BIGGER and look like the organic results except they have a map pin.
2)    As you scroll down the MAP scrolls with you. So even when you are at bottom of page in the organic listings the map moves down and shows on right.
3)    ONLY 7 (purely) organic listings show and in this instance most are directories or assn. Only 2 are Dentists.
4)    To get on the top TWO screens you need to be in local. Most of the organic are 2 screens BELOW the fold.
5)    Reviews are more prominent
6)    Link to Place Page is marked as such, instead of just “More Info” which means better branding and name recognition for Google Places
7) It’s pulling meta description from the site – just like organic.
PLUS it adds some snippets from reviews on the Place page. So best of both worlds and BIGGER!

I would add that the results also now include links to the review sites from which Google received the reviews and includes more information about some but not all of the businesses. Note that when Local shows at the top of the page, only 3 local results are shown above the fold making positions 4 through 7 much less valuable real estate than currently.

In the results above the fold, information from the website’s meta description tag are included with the listing. These seem to be absent from those below the fold perhaps due to lack of relevance to the search. The replacing of business name with the website title tag is an interesting choice. Is it possible that Google trusts a website title tag more than a business name used in Places? If so, it could be interpreted as a tacit acknowledgement of the massive amount of business title spam that Google Maps has generated.

Google appears to be attempting to provide a direct answer to the searcher without their needing to leave Google’s home page. It also seems to be an experiment in more fully integrating organic and local results into a single unified display although those listings with local content have a strong visual edge and enhanced content.

If a searcher needs more information, Google has made their own content and that of the reviewers more easily accessible to the searcher, potentially reducing website visits for the site owner but increasing them for review sites.

Google is always testing so whether this new display will see broader exposure is unknown. It is of interest that the direction that they seem to be pointing is towards tighter integration of organic and local search.

Here are several more of Linda’s screen shots. One of the information below the fold where the balance of the 7 pack and the non local organic listings are shown as well and a second of a search in which the new local/organic listings appeared mid page:

—-

—-
Update: 7/6/2010 10:20

Linda has sent along an additional screen shot with the following note:

Was just checking rank on an Optometrist client of mine. The new SERPS are showing up
for me in Raleigh NC too and this is the BEST example yet. So you may want to replace
one of the other images in your blog. PLUS showing a different city will show it’s a
bigger test than just Chicago. Plus this image may be a little cleaner.

Check this one out. All 7 local listings are on top. Only 4 organic are on the bottom of the page!

Also seeing new serps for Seattle Chiropractor and Dallas Dentists.
Don’t have time to check any more or do more screenshots but looks like
this is a pretty widely spread test area.

No one else I’ve checked with can see it except for someone in Canada
was able to see the Chicago results for a little while.

BIG CHANGE IN RANKING TOO. So maybe an algo change?
The only 2 clients I can find in the new serps both show up a lot higher.

One is #4 now, but in new serps moved to #1.

The other was locked in at #19 due to a Google penalty an old SEO created.
I have not been able to move him past 19 which is where he still is stuck at.
But in the new serps he’s #2.

—-
Update 7/6/2010 11:17

While Linda has only seen these in the medical industry and not other high value industries like law, Barry Schwartz reports a reader seeing it for a florist search.

Linda Buquet of Catalyst Marketing specializes in Google Places Optimization. My thanks to her for all the many great screen shots and commentary on this test.

Local University Cleveland went off incredibly well despite some unexpected speaker changes. Mary Bowling was laid up with a health problem and Google was not able to attend at the last minute due to some confusion or another. But David Mihm, Matt McGee and I held down the presentation fort with the more than able bodied & insightful support of Anita Campbell of Small Biz Trends/BizSugar, the effervescence of Maryam Gholami of Bing and Geoff Karcher of the Karcher Group.

GetListed Local University is always a fun event for me (despite having to redo my presentation at midnight the night before due to the Google no show) because I get to spend time with great people. The most fun is that I meet other business owners and practitioners that have been reading my blog and I get to meet the folks in Cleveland that were so very helpful putting on the event.

Anita Campbell of SmallBizTrends/BizSugar, Collyn Floyd of the Karcher Group, Brad Nellis of NEOSA/COSE, John Denny & Julie Provins of Cleveland.com/Advance & Joel Libava, The Franchise King all did an incredible job of executing the event and attracting attendees. Google, Bing & Universal Business Listings provided much appreciated sponsorship support. We could not have done it without all of their help.

Always astounding is that other professionals are willing to travel to join the session. Folks came in from Pittsburgh, Detroit, Hamilton, Minneapolis, NJ, and Kansas.

To all, I say a hearty and heartfelt THANKS!

For those of you that couldn’t come, here are some photos that I took of the event.

Here are some other round ups of the Local U:
Jim Rudnick: #LocalU Conference a Cleveland Success, eh!
More Photos From GetListed.org Local U Cleveland

Today, I am presenting at the second third GetListed.org Local University in the Cleveland. If you are coming PLEASE take a moment to introduce yourself as I would love to meet you.

For those of you that attended the presentation these links will provide background information and details for a pathway to dig deeper into the world of managing your listing on Google Maps. For those of you that are not in attendance, the slides provide a good overview of critical base line ideas and tactics that every local campaign should embrace.

Slide 2 – March 2010 Search Engine Market Share
Slide 8/9 – The Importance of Page One Visibility
Slides 11/12 – How the Google Cluster Works
Slide 15- Choosing the Right Category – A Tool
Slide 15 – Writing a Great Business Description
Slide 16 – Creating a GeoSitemap – A tool
Slide 22/23 Local Search Ranking Factors – the many variables
Slide 22/23 A brief list of 10 Ranking Factors – somewhat old but still valid and a quick read
Slide 22/23 Thinking about your Business Name in the Internet Era
Slide 23 – Custom Maps – A Goldmine
Slide 23- The Importance of Citations
Slide 23 – 20 Citation Sources in the US
Slide 23 – User Generated Content – Geo Tagged Photos
Slide 23 – How To Gather Reviews
Slide 23- Where to Gather Reviews
Slide 24- A Listing management tool