Google is taking their street view a step further by now going inside actual businesses. Google has hired professional photographers in select cities to go into businesses and take photos inside the location that will later be displayed on that businesses Google Places page. Businesses can apply for a photo shoot using this form: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlemapsbusinessphotos/

These photo shoots will take about an hour and will be minimally disruptive for most types of businesses and like most things Google, it’s free! Although this service is roughly a month old, I haven’t heard much response until a local Denver book store posted a blog sharing their experience. You can read a summary of the visit here including why they think Google selected them for the initial run: http://bit.ly/bMo42V

Out of curiosity, I checked their Google places page to see if anything might be unique to warrant such special treatment and was surprised to find that they had not even claimed their listing yet. Even more surprising or not, depending on how familiar you are with Google Maps, the URL is directing to a book store in Washington DC with a similar name.

With Google investing more and more time and money in an effort to get small business owners to take hold of their listings, it’s unbelievable that this store owner wouldn’t be in the know on how to claim their own listing. This is especially interesting considering Google’s visit, but for whatever reason this just serves as another example to the mess Google is trying to clean up.

To Capitol Hill Books: If you find this blog post, please reply and I’ll personally help you claim your listing for free and set up you with exposure on other search engines as well.

Google Maps is in the process of rolling out a solution for businesses that don’t want a street address attached to their listings, namely home-based businesses or those that offer a service to a large geographic area.

When you log into Google’s Local Business Center, you can click on a tab called “Service Areas and Location Settings,” where you can specify if you want your address to appear in Maps results. This is great for people that run a business from their home; previously, if they didn’t want their home address displaying, they didn’t have a map listing or had to find a (somewhat questionable) workaround.

Additionally, service-based businesses can select either “Distance from one location” or “List of areas served” to display their location. Google hasn’t made an official announcement yet and has not indicated if all LBC users can take advantage of the service. Visit Search Engine Land for more info.

Through the local business center (LBC), Google allows business owners to update their location and store details that display in the search results. When editing or creating this profile, it’s suggested you include as much information as possible, which is proven to help with rankings. Although name, phone number, and address are important, a business should go well beyond and create a profile with a personal touch. Some of that customization can be done with images, video and specific content about that location.

The tip of the week is: how to add social media and other custom related links to your maps places page and have those hyper link. While it’s not entirely obvious in the LBC interface, Google does allow quite a bit of customization to these listings. In the ‘additional details’ section, simply add the web site in the left column and the URL with the http:// in the right column. This ensures the link will hyper link in the actual live result.

We had our Google Ad Words reps in our offices last week for their ‘state of the search industry’ address, which is always interesting and helpful. Google’s client/agency support has always been miles ahead of Yahoo and MSN, but that’s a topic for another day. In Google’s presentation they had a slide illustrating the increase in long tail keyword usage and the huge decrease in one to two word keywords. At first I didn’t think anything of it as it makes sense and is something we have known from our own data for years, but then I remembered a blog I had read the night before from Matt McGee that describes the exact opposite.

In Matt’s blog he presents data from Experian/Hitwise which indicates that one word keywords have actually increased by 17% in 2009. It’s important to point out that the Hitwise data represents all search engines, while Google’s is specific to their results. So what might have caused a rise in one word keywords as of late?

I would first look to how the search result pages have changed in the last year with Google, Yahoo and MSN all displaying much more content through universal search based on a users IP address. When someone searches with single keywords such as ‘sushi’ or ‘shoes’ results are returned that provide much more options than before. As I’ve noted in previous blogs the engines display local businesses that are relevant to the search term entered. Similarly, sponsored ads can attach a local address to the text ad for that search query as well. Personally, I know this new format has changed my search behavior as I’m able to put in less to get more results.

Another contributing factor to this increase can be applied to the dramatic rise in mobile usage. Mobile phones provide a resource for immediate on the spot information and that information is almost always requested through as little searching as possible. The convenience of mobile browsing has developed a search behavior much more dependent on location rather than keywords.

So how does this affect advertising strategies? From a sponsored campaign perspective there is no argument against the need for long tail keywords and the effective CPA’s they generate, but a searchers behavior should also be observed when building a keyword portfolio. This includes the select use of one and two word search terms that can ‘assist’ with the overall performance. Without going too deep into visitor acquisition channels and attribution models, it’s thought that these ‘top of the funnel’ keywords are usually clicked on well before the actual conversion is made.

Organically, this puts even more emphasis on having a correctly optimized map listing as trends show those will be appearing more frequently for generic search queries. Achieving high positioning on a general search term in the maps can provide significant web, phone and in store visit traffic.

Although an advanced tactic, it’s no secret that a business can add their Facebook and Twitter pages to their Google Maps Places Page, but as of yesterday Google is now hyper linking these sites. Previously, Google would display these as a plain text URL and a searcher would have to copy and paste that URL into a browser, which would obviously never happen. Now, a new page is opened when each link is clicked.

This isn’t limited to just Facebook and Twitter as it appears any URL relating to the business such as a company blog or a LinkedIn profile can also be added. Adding these new fields is easy in the Local Business Center by simply creating a custom item in the additional details section for each URL (e.g., Twitter: http://twitter.com/location3, then repeat the process and submit for Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

This is clearly another step in the right direction for Google as they aim to provide an area where business owners can include more than basic (name, address and phone) information. With Google now making more online and offline pushes for Local Business Center participation, this new feature is surely an enticing option to attract just that.

Click on image to enlarge.

Remember coupons? Well, those rectangle pieces of paper that you used to watch your mother cut out of the Sunday paper just got a huge face lift.

Early last week, just in time for Black Friday, the Google Local Business Center extended the ability to offer coupons on mobile devices. Previously, this was only done through printable coupons.

Now, when consumers search for businesses from their mobile devices, they will be able to see coupons from the device. Rather than bringing a printed coupon into a store, they will be able to show the coupon, formatted correctly, directly on the screen of their mobile device.

For business owners, coupons can be added and updated by claiming your business in the Local Business Center. Searchers can find these coupons on Google.com and Google Maps by searching for products and services in their area and then click through to the ‘places page’ of that specific business.

There will always be adaptation periods to wait out with any new release, but the simplistic nature at which Google coupons can be created should ease that along. That coupled with new opportunity for exposure afforded by Google, will likely inspire a fresh wave of mobile marketing exploits aimed at lifting the sagging holiday sales expected for many small businesses amidst a still-tenuous economy.

Being one of the local search specialists around here, people often forward me articles and blogs they think I might be interested in. Today I was forwarded this article from NYTimes.com that really caught my attention. It’s been awhile since I stopped everything else to voice my opinion, but this one seemed to not represent the true going ons inside Google local search.

The article mentioned above highlights the wiki or self editing features of Google Maps. For those not familiar, Google gives anyone the ability to update not only the physical location on a map, but also the specific phone, address and name of a business. Unless you’re in the Boy Scouts and regularly observe and live by the honor system, that last sentence should immediately raise some eye brows.

I’m not going to go into the quality and accuracy issues within Wikipedia.com, but getting inaccurate information about Sinbad and getting wrong directions to a hospital because someone moved the map location are completely different. As we know by now, most Wikipedia errors are corrected within 24 hours, however, that can’t be said for Google Maps.

As the NYTimes article points out, Richard Hintz has made tweaks to more than 200 business listings and Faraz Ahmad more than 41,000 changes. This brings up the age-old question: If you are faced with the prospect of having brain surgery, who would you rather it be performed by, a surgeon trained at medical school or someone who has seen it done a few times? This is basically what Google has opened their doors to. For every Richard and Faraz mapping out their neighborhood correctly, there are five other citizens, business owners and competitors taking advantage of the system.

Taking advantage of the system includes everything from business owners maliciously changing a competitor’s store location and business details, to a locksmith taking over a major hotel chain listing so they have better web visibility. For an extreme example of this I have chosen to illustrate how easy it would be to change the information of the Whitehouse. In an effort to avoid being contacted by government officials, a quick disclaimer is necessary: I did not actually change any details to the White House listing.

To be fair, Google is attempting to recruit these ”brain surgeons” or actual business owners into updating their own locations, but that effort will never overcome the curiosity and ease of the public manipulation of business locations. The following quote from the article is putting entirely too much trust and ethical weight in the hands of the people that can also do the most damage:

“It is a huge shift,” said Michael F. Goodchild, a professor of geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “This is putting mapping where it should be, which is the hands of local people who know an area well.”

To prevent this from happening to your business, claim your business or hire a local map listings company to manage your business listings across the various search engines and internet yellow pages. In the bigger picture, Google just dropped its mapping provider, Tele Atlas, in place of their own solution. Allowing public edits has created incorrect maps and when people can’t find places correctly, they usually go to a different source that can.

Google recently announced it would start testing a new text ad format called local listing ads. These ads are available to small businesses with physical locations and will appear at the top of a search results page when a geographic query is made to an advertiser’s related category. Once again Google is pushing their traditional organic results further down the page.

Unlike Ad Words ads, the local listing ads will not include a title or promotional ad text. Instead, the local listing ads will show the company name, address, phone number and URL. Another departure from the Ad Words model is that these ads will be sold for a flat monthly fee based on the company’s location and business category. The cost of these ads is unconfirmed, but it’s expected they will range anywhere from $40 – $200 per month depending on the competitive nature of the category.

There are certain prerequisites, such as the advertiser must have claimed their location in Google’s local business center through pin verification. Currently, these ads are only available to advertisers in San Francisco or San Diego, with plans to roll out to more U.S. cities after this testing period. The initial month will be free of charge as long as they have verified their listing.

One of the more intriguing functions will be the included call tracking. Google will be assigning a call tracking number that will forward to the business line of the advertiser. These calls can then be tracking in the Local Business Center interface. The only knock on this, is that each call will start with a Google Whisper indicating “this caller brought to you by Google’, but at the end of the day that seems worth it to gain more transparency into the ads performance.

Overall this is a very interesting and an almost expected release from Google considering the amount of real estate they have given to the map listings on the main page results. However, there are still too many questions than answers at this point such as:
 Will customer support finally be available?
 If it’s a flat rate how will multiple advertisers be ranked?
 What interference with Ad Words will this have?

If you’re familiar with running locally targeted PPC campaigns in AdWords you’re aware of the local business ad format. Local Business Ads will no longer be a separate ad format in place of new feature called Location Extensions which is available to select advertisers starting today with the entire option rolling out in the next few weeks.

Locally targeted campaigns with physical locations can now display those addresses below their text ads. These ads will appear on the main page search results in addition to the maps.google.com page. The interesting part about this is that Google is allowing advertisers who have LBC (Local Business Center) accounts the option of linking them to AdWords so the addresses can be dynamically inserted into those text ads depending on the search query. For businesses that don’t have listings created in the LBC, AdWords provides an option to manually enter your address.

The option to manually enter an address might be a concern considering all the hijacking and spamming that goes on, so I’m anxious to see how Google handles this on the PPC side.

According to Google, existing ads will continue to function as they have until they are edited. Once it has been edited, they will be changed to the traditional text ad. It will look the same when published and it will appear in the same places, but the format will be different.

With this change advertisers can expect to see a higher CTR on these types of searches. I’ll be monitoring these results and posting a follow up blog on my findings.

Example of interface:

There are so many factors that can boost rankings in map listings and the success of each can be debated over and over again, but one tactic everyone agrees on is the value of web citations. Only second to physical location in ranking probability, a web citation can have a huge impact on how well a business ranks in the 10 pack. This can be considered the link building of the local maps world and requires a similar constant effort.

A web citation or reference is simply any source containing relevant information about the business being searched. Google looks at these links completely differently in local than in organic SEO. All that is really needed for a local web citation is an address and business name that matches what Google decides is relevant. Having web references provides an extra level of trust to Google by showing them that your business is well represented across other major channels. So where should you start?

The first step is to research the 10 pack landscape in your industry using relevant keywords. Do you rank well? Are your competitors ranking ahead of you? Once you have identified your current positioning it would be best to dig deeper into the profile of the top ranked business. By selecting the ‘Web Pages’ tab within a business profile you can see what web citations that particular business has.

In this particular example, Google is bringing in data from Yahoo, Angie’s List and Getfave.com. All of those channels offer the option to upload information about your business and should be done similar to claiming your business in Google. By simply adding your business info to those channels you are increasing your businesses chance of generating a new web citation. This was just an example as there are several more sites that Google favors which I will be reviewing in a later blog. Stay tuned.