Google has run into some “complications” upgrading local businesses to the new Places dashboard.
In some cases, businesses’ accounts and another accounts that they don’t control were both verified for the same business using the old Places dashboard. In other cases, the businesses may have verified multiple times from the accounts they do control. Either way, it has resulted in duplicates.
Google has been sending out emails to affected businesses, which say:
We’d like to inform you that Google Places no longer accommodates more than one authorized owner per business location. Your account contains one or more listings that have been identified as duplicates of other listings and as a result, some of the information you provide will not be shown to Google users anymore…
By logging into your Google Places for Business dashboard, you can view the duplicate listing, which will show a banner reading, “You cannot update this listing because it has been marked as a duplicate of another.” If you no longer want to manage this listing, you can remove this listing from your dashboard. Alternatively, you can request administrative access from the current owner of the listing using the link to Learn more in your dashboard.
It’s possible that someone else in your organization, or a third party whom you once worked with, verified the business in another account. If you don’t believe anyone else could possibly be active in managing this business information, other than yourself, you can always contact support directly to help restore your account’s access to the listing.
She then talks about three scenarios: Multiple known verified accounts from old Places dashboard; Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, same account; and Verified same business in both Google Places and in Google+, different accounts.
In any of these situations, you can keep the duplicate listing instead of the active one if you wish.
If any of this affects you, definitely read Wang’s whole post.
Google announced that it has made some tweaks to the Google Places Quality Guidelines, specifically for business names. The changes illustrate how you can add descriptors.
Jade Wang announced the update ion a post on the Google Product Forums. Under “Business Name,” it now says:
Your title should reflect your business’s real-world title.
In addition to your business’s real-world title, you may include a single descriptor that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers.
Marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.
Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are “Starbucks Downtown” or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant”. Examples that would not be accepted would be “#1 Seattle Plumbing”, “Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery”, or “Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas”.
Late last month, Google announced that it was adding 1,000 new categories in the new Places dashboard for businesses. This is an effort to significantly expand the breadth of available categories internationally.
The announcement was made in the Google product forums, and on Friday, that announcement received an update from Google’s Jade Wang, who had some additional news to share:
Additionally, we’ve just launched support for regional dialects in business categories on both Places for Business and Google Maps! As an example, an English speaking business owner in India can now choose the commonly used term Petrol Pump as their business category instead of the term Gas Station, which is uncommon in India. This new feature improves localization of business categories for more than a dozen countries.
Unfortunately, Wang did not specify which countries are getting these new options, but if you’ve had to select on oddly-worded version of your own category, you might want to check back in with the dashboard, and see if they’ve added something more appropriate.
Google announced that it is making some changes to how business pages are created.
Businesses creating listings in the new Places for Business dashboard will no longer have to wait to complete PIN verification before they can see the +page. That goes for “most businesses,” though the company didn’t get very specific on just what that means.
Jade Wang says in the Google and Your Business product forum (via Search Engine Roundtable), “Just follow the link from your dashboard to see the new page. You will be able to use Google+ social features on this unverified page, but please note — you still need to complete PIN verification before the page will start showing up in Google Maps and across other Google properties.”
“If you’ve got an unverified local Google+ page (made using Google+ in the local business/place category), then we still encourage you to PIN verify this page so that it can start appearing in Google Maps and across other Google properties,” she adds.
Google notes that if you create a local Google+ for a business it thinks is already in Google Maps, you may still ned to go through both PIN verification and the admin request flow before you actually get to manage the page.
The changes are rolling out gradually.
Earlier this week, Wang announced that Google Places For Business is getting over 1,000 new categories internationally.
Google is working on improving and expanding the business categories for Google Places For Business for countries around the world. In fact, they’re adding over 1,000 new categories in the Places dashboard.
So you might be wondering: why hadn’t we already done that? Well, international business categorization is quite tricky. Imagine you’re planning a trip to Greece. When you search from the US, you’ll probably be using English, and you’ll see the categories of Greek businesses in English. However, those businesses in Greece were probably set in Greek using Places for Business in Greek. This means the Places for Business team has to translate and associate categories in many languages. As you can imagine, this can become very complicated very quickly.
Today, we are taking a first step of many to improve categories that merchants can use to represent their businesses. Specifically, we’re adding over 1,000 new categories in the new Places dashboard. These categories are available globally and translated to every language Google supports.
If you run a business page, you’re going to want to keep an eye on the categories, and change accordingly if you think you can do better than what you have now.
Google has retired the standalone Google+ Local app for iOS. 9to5Mac first reported on an email that Google sent around (which has since made its way to other publications) that it would be retired as of August 7th, though the app appears to have already been pulled from the App Store.
In the email, Google says:
The good news is that all features of the Google+ Local app are now available in Google Maps for Mobile on iOS devices:
Search by categories of places, like “restaurants” or “coffee shops”
Read place information, including written reviews, average price, address and Street View (where available)
See what people in your Google+ circles have to say about their favorite places around the world
Rate and review places you’ve been to
Share places, locations and businesses you find
Google says that after August 7th, you’ll no longer be able to access the Google+ Local app through your iOS device.
Google launched the new Google Maps app for iOS last week, shortly after it launched on Android. Clearly, Google would just rather have people using Google Maps, which probably makes things a lot simpler in the long run, though some like to have these kinds of standalone apps for specific features.
Back in January, Google revealed that Google Business Photos were being used by 100,000 businesses, a number that has no doubt grown significantly in the first half of 2013. In late May, Google announced the expansion of the program into seven additional countries.
Do you have business photos up in Google’s local results? Have Google Business Photos ever helped you decide where to go? Let us know in the comments.
Google Business Photos give businesses a chance to show off their interiors to prospective customers, and further entice them into coming to their physical locations. Just as Google lets you virtually tour the Eiffel Tower or the abandoned Fukushima town of Namie-machi, Google will let you tour the inside of the coffee shop down the street or the florist downtown.
Unlike with its more publicized endeavors, however, Google is not using its various Street View camera equipment to go inside every store around the world. It relies upon groups of local certified photographers which have applied and met Google’s requirements to become a Google Trusted Photographer. These photographers then find businesses to photograph to fill up Google with more interior imagery.
We had a conversation with one of Google’s trusted photographers, who gave us a better idea of what it’s like to go through the process. Sue Ann Tomlinson runs SuePH Photography. She applied to be part of Google’s program back in November of 2011, and was called upon by the company the following April, when it invited her to join the program.
Given how an online presence can make or break even a brick and mortar business these days, you would think businesses would be champing at the bit to have Google certified photos from inside their establishments make their way into the local search results, but that’s not always the case, Tomlinson tells us. Some businesses simply don’t want to have their interiors photographed for Google.
“It’s about 50-50,” she says. “Some businesses see value, and others don’t. We are creating a buzz about Google Business Photos and the value of these services. When the right business is approached they do not hesitate and jump on the opportunity. In the last month I have seen more and more of this.”
I would guess interest will continue to grow, especially as businesses see their competitors’ Google listings.
On average (though it varies by square footage), Tomlinson says she shoots about 144 shots for a business.
“I submit the imagery [to Google] for the virtual tour,” she explains. “Everything I submit gets posted to the clients’ Google+ Local page. The client has the option to remove or add photographs of their own to the Google+ Local page.”
With only about half of businesses wanting their photos on Google, it only make sense that Tomlinson doesn’t just wait for businesses to come to her, though each Google Trusted Photographer is listed on the Google Business Photos site, where if a business is seeking this service, they can simply go and find a trusted photographer in their area.
She says she hasn’t received many calls for work this way. Instead, she does more reaching out to businesses herself, and does so daily with referrals, calls, or visits to businesses based on market research.
“I mainly target businesses with a heavy social media presence and new businesses just starting out,” Tomlinson tells us. “I also have built SuePH Photography on the power of referrals.”
Google does not give any kind of assignments to its trusted photographers.
“Each photographer is an independent business and/or trusted agency, and I work directly with each business I contact,” Tomlinson says. “As a qualified Business Photos Trusted Photographer I am able to run my own independent business – with free support from Google.”
When asked how much professional time is being spent photographing businesses for Google, Tomlinson says, “That depends on how many shoots I schedule for the week. I can spend 4-10 hours a week just photographing. I plan to expand my business to include architectural and real estate services as my business grows.”
In the state of Nevada, there are only seven Google Trusted Photographers operating, and in northern Nevada, it’s only three. There are over a hundred and twenty-five in the region of Nevada/California/Oregon.
Interestingly, the photographers are not so much in competition with one another as they are collaborators.
“I work with the two other GTP in the Reno market (Northern Nevada),” Tomlinson says. “We collaborate on pricing, leads and work together to market the program.”
This is apparently a common dynamic. This recent al.com article discusses a trio of Birmingham area photographers working together to put together virtual tours of a least 150 places for Google.
Between the 3 photographers in Reno, Tomlinson says, they are pushing 100+ tours.
“Most of my clients want to keep things professional and simply want to have an employee group shot,” Tomlinson tells us. “However, the most unusual virtual tours I have seen from other GTPs were for various ad agencies and marketing companies worldwide as you may have seen. Why not have fun with these tours and stand out even more?”
Probably good advice. You want to be less boring than your competitors right?
What are some interesting things you’ve seen businesses do in Google Business Photos? Has a photo you’ve seen on Google ever deterred you from going somewhere? Let us know in the comments.
Managing your business’s presence on Google is now easier and more accessible. Now, when you search for your business on Google, under right-hand-side panel, there’s a link that says Are you the business owner? Clicking on this will direct you to become the verified owner of this business on Google Places for Business, or to manage the page for your business if you’ve already done so.
It’s easier than ever for business owner to begin the verification process, right from searching for your business on Google.
Here’s what it looks like:
Consider it a friendly reminder from Google that you need to verify your ownership, and keep your listing up to date.
Google announced the launch of an update to Google Places for Business. With the update comes a simpler interface, more integration with other Google products, and quicker updates for edits.
“The upgraded interface is simpler and more intuitive, so the process of updating your business information is quick and easy,” says senior product manager Qasar Younis. “There’s also a widget that helps you understand at a glance how much more you need to do to complete your business profile.”
“When you make changes to your business, your customers want to know about it right away,” says Younis. “Most edits made via the upgraded user interface now appear on Google Maps and our suite of other services within 48 hours. As before, we may continue to moderate changes to ensure the highest quality local experience.”
With the interface update, businesses will be able to access their local Google+ pages to take advantage of the social features, and AdWords Express/Google Offers users will be able to manage their ads and promotions more easily. Results can be checked, and edits can be made from the Places for Business dashboard.
Google announced that it has made some improvements to its spam detection algorithms that increased the number of reviews that appear on some Google+ Local pages.
“Online reviews have been in the news a lot recently, and we at Google are committed to helping people to get ratings, reviews, and recommendations that are relevant, helpful, and trustworthy,” Dasha says. “To protect both business owners and customers from spam reviews, we have systems in place that may remove individual reviews.”
Reviews have been in the news, mostly because of defamation suits. We recently looked at one particular case where a contractor sued a woman who accused him of being a thief in reviews on Yelp and Angie’s List. On top of that, a court ordered her to change her reviews, until another judge reversed that decision, saying (in a nutshell) that she could leave the reviews up until she was proven guilty. But that’s a whole other conversation. This is about spam.
“No one likes spam, and we’d like to talk about what you can do to make sure all of the reviews on Google+ Local are useful, honest, and written by real people!” adds Dasha.
Some Warnings
Google advises business owners to be wary of SEO and reputation management services that promise to generate reviews, and Google says it will take down fake “glowing testimonies”. The company also notes that it does not take down negative reviews for just being negative for anyone, and instead advises business owners to respond themselves. Google also says not to trust anyone who says they know how to remove reviews from Google.
Interestingly, a specific guideline Google lists for business owners is to not set up a computer or tablet in their place of business customers can leave reviews on site. The company also reminds business owners that it doesn’t allow them to give customers free gifts or discounts in exchange for reviews. It’s kind of like the whole paid links thing.
Google tells SEOs specifically, “If a business accepts paper comment cards it might be tempting to collect them and “digitize” them by posting the reviews on Google+ Local. We ask that all reviews come from first hand experience and do not allow posting reviews on behalf of others.”
Additionally, Google encourages users to report reviews that are in violation of its policy guidelines. There’s a gray flag icon next to reviews for that purpose. From there, users can fill out a form. Google does not follow up individually, however.
Google tells reviewers to read the guidelines here, and reminds those who want to leave reviews for multiple locations of the same business to tailor each review to a specific location. They also advise against writing reviews for your current employer, as this is against the rules as well. Also, don’t put URls in the text of your reviews, because they’ll treat it as spam.
Google Must Keep Up The Quality
It’s going to be increasingly important for Google to keep up the quality of its local search results. Google may dominate the search landscape, but local is one area where there is real potential for other players to make a mark. One such player is Facebook.
Facebook launched Graph Search in January, and is only just getting started. So far, it’s pretty much a novelty, but there is a lot of potential for it to grow into something much bigger, and as I discussed in a recent article, local search is one area where it could quickly take a stab at Google. It really depends on how much people use it. It hasn’t even rolled out to everyone yet, and it’s going to get much more feature rich as time goes on (including the addition of open graph – the Facebook-connected web – which is essentially most of the web).
Of course, there are already plenty of other mobile apps that must be already taking away some amount of Google’s local search market share. The point is, Google needs to stay at the top of its game, which is where spam control is of the utmost importance.
No matter how many nice features Google adds though, it has to keep quality up on results. Just as this is an ongoing issues for web search, it appears to be one for local search as well. In addition to spam issues, Google has also had issues where anonymous reviews were making it to business listings, even though Google has moved to a policy against this. This was reported on in January (and had even been happening for months), and we’ve really yet to see any headway made there. Google said it was looking into it, but we’re not sure what they found. The specific example we looked at still has the anonymous reviews.
Google announced the launch of a new Google+ Local feature in a Google+ post last night. Now, when you upload a picture of a place or of food you ordered at a restaurant, you can easily share it with friends, using the Google+ Circles (or public) functionality.
When you upload pics of your favorite spots and dishes (you know who you are!) on Google+ Local, you might want to make sure your friends see them too.
Starting today, it’s easier than ever to make it so. After you upload your photos to a restaurant’s local Google+ page, you can also quickly share them with the world – or just the people in your circles – in one easy step.
Try it! Just upload your photos, and click “Publish.” Add a comment, select who you want to share with, and see what people say about your pics!
Google may soon find that it has some new competitive challenges to face when it comes to local search – particularly social local search. Facebook, as you may have heard, revealed its new Graph Search on Tuesday, which will enable users to tap into their social connections to discover local businesses (among other things) based on what their friends like.
Obviously, Facebook has a huge advantage over Google when it comes to friend connections. Google is going to want to encourage this kind of local business-based sharing more than ever, to help keep local business search relevant to users on a social level.
On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled Graph Search, and I’ve been doing little but reading and writing about it ever since. There’s one conclusion I’ve drawn about it so far, above all else, and that’s that we have no idea how big this thing can really get.
Mark Zuckerberg made it very clear that this is the “very early” version of the product, which is only in limited beta to begin with. The company is rolling it out slowly, and will improve on it in time. To me, the biggest potential that Graph Search holds, in terms of making a real mark on the search space, is what lies in the Open Graph, which accounts for a huge chunk of the web (all of those sites that have some kind of Facebook integration). That goes beyond what happens in your News Feed, or on your timeline.
Even out of the box, however, we’re seeing signs that this could make a major dent in the local search space. Think about it. People arguably go to their friends for recommendations about local businesses than they do for any other kind of query. This is why Google has made such a push for social in its local search results. First it was that Hotpot thing, and then last year, they even went so far as to make the switch from Google Places to Google+ Local. You have to be signed into your Google account to review a business, and with Google’s social search features, Google will show you when you happen upon a result that one of your Google+ connections has engaged with.
While this is all great in concept, it’s severely lacking in execution on Google’s part, most of all, because Google+ does not have the kinds of connections that Facebook has. Naturally, that’s where the world’s largest social network comes in. That’s what they have. That’s what Facebook does. They connect people, and have done so for over a billion users. You’re far more likely to find meaningful (to you) opinions on Facebook than you are on Google+, and especially at the local level. Your everyday friends – the friends that you live close to and work with – are on Facebook. These are the friends that are going to the stores and restaurants that you are likely to visit.
Furthermore, the businesses in your town are far more likely to have Facebook Pages than Google+ pages (as well as the “likes” from local residents that are associated with them). No wonder Facebook is calling on businesses to optimize their Pages for Graph Search.
Zuckerberg opened up Graph Search’s introduction by saying that this is not web search. He doesn’t want us to think that Facebook is really going after Google with this product, and in many ways it is not (at least not yet). People aren’t suddenly going to go to Facebook Search to find everything they want to know. However, when it comes to seeing what the people they actually know think about businesses they’re actually thinking about checking out, Facebook automatically has the more relevant results. The results may be incomplete because you can’t rely on all of your friends to “like” everything they actually like (Danny Sullivan made some great points about this), but the results must be more relevant than Google’s for those looking for their friends’ opinions, simply because their friends are present.
There’s nothing Google can do about this problem, short of a deal with Facebook (which it could find a way to get if it wanted to badly enough, from the sound of it), or people magically abandoning Facebook for Google+ (and that’s not happening anytime soon either). In some circles (no pun intended), Google+ might be able to fit the bill. If you work, for Google, for example, you know a lot of people on Google+. For the rest of the world, I’m not so sure.
Online reviews are a hot button issue right now, particularly as one case involving Yelp reviews has attracted some media attention. You can read about that here. Basically, a woman was sued for defaming remarks, as she claimed in reviews on Yelp and Angie’s List that a contractor had stolen jewelry from her, which she has so far been unable to prove. She was initially ordered to change her reviews, but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned that decision, indicating that a jury would have to find her guilty before the reviews would be required to be removed.
As WebProNews readers have indicated in various comments, a lot of business owners feel that the reviews shouldn’t be allowed to remain up, as the business stands to lose potential customers as a result, which of course, is the basis of the suit to begin with.
Accountability for online reviews is a big issue for businesses who face damage to their reputations. Google recognizes this, and last year, when they moved to the Google+ Local model for local search, the company was supposed to have started requiring users to be signed into their Google accounts, which would be accompanied by their names/profiles, to post reviews. This would ensure accountability for what is said in these reviews.
Upon trying to write a business review while logged out of Google, I am personally prompted to sign in.
However, Google appears to still be letting anonymous reviews through. Instead of the reviewers name, it may say “A Google User”.
About five weeks ago we started asking our patients to write reviews about us and our practice in our Google+ Local page (https://plus.google.com/101314730224126339952/about?hl=en sorry, I don’w know why but I can’t embed the link). We only have one page as Google already merged our Google Places and previous Google+ page.
We have noticed than some reviews appear to be written as “A Google User” instead of displaying the actual name of the review’s author.
Does anybody know why this is happening? As far as I know there’s no way for google users to ask to post a review anonymously.
I’m concerned about this as positive anonymous reviews are sometimes perceived as spam or false reviews, damaging our reputation.
Google’s Jade Wang responds in the thread, saying, “Thanks, all — we are investigating.”
The response was from yesterday. The anonymous reviews are still showing:
In the thread, one user says Google may show “A Google User” for reviews that were created before the changes, but they shouldn’t be displaying this way for reviews that recent. Wang’s acknowledgement seems to suggest that Google will fix this.
Luckily for this particular business, these particular reviews are positive.
Google is now highlighting its indoor photography for businesses from search results pages, making the imagery much more visible to users.
Businesses who have been able to participate in this get the added bonus of letting customers browse their store before actually getting them in the door. Let’s hope they like what they see.
Google said in a Google+ post, “Ever wonder what the inside of a business looked like before visiting? Google Search just made it easier to find Google Business Photos – which allows you to virtually walk-through a business with Google Street View-Technology. Just click the “See Inside” image on Search to enter the business and walk around as if you were there.”
Google started taking photos of store interiors back in 2010, then officially announced Google Business Photos last year.
“Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t always judge a business by its exterior,” Google said at the time. “Interior photographs are a great way to show potential customers what your business is really like. By enhancing your Place Page, business photos will help your business stand out above the competition and get discovered on Google. Millions of users will be able to visit your establishment from the comfort of their own homes, or preview it to help them decide on a visit. Best of all, it’s free!”
Of course, the Place Page concept has changed a bit over time, with the newer Google+ Local interface.
About a month ago, Google added indoor maps to the desktop version of Google Maps after availability on Android devices. With the feature, users can view floor plans for some airports, department stores, malls, etc.
Google announced today that it is now letting Panoramio users export their photos to Google+. With Google+ being such a magnet for photographers, and Google touting it as such, it’s kind of hard to believe this wasn’t already an option.
“2 years ago, we launched a feature that allowed all Panoramio users to import their photos from Picasa Web Albums into Panoramio so they could share them with the world via Google Maps and Google Earth,” says Panoramio Community Manager Gerald Sanz. “Many Panoramio users are Google+ users, and many Google+ users are Panoramio users.”
Photos that are copied from Panoramio that are associated with a place will be featured in Google+ Local. As Google notes, this should add a great deal of visibility to the photos.
“Sharing your photos in Google+ will be easier than ever as by uploading your photos in Panoramio, you will automatically upload your photos in Google+, so you can get the best of both worlds,” says Sanz. “With all these changes we hope to bring you more choice, exposure and freedom for your photos of the World, and we hope you like it as much as we do.”
When users export all their photos to Google+, they’ll be able to download security copies via the Download your data link under Google Accounts.
Google has launched a new Zagat app for Android devices in one of a handful of recent Google+ Local-related announcements from the company. And in case you were wondering, it does come with a Google flavor.
“While our ratings and reviews were always available in guidebooks and to paid digital subscribers, a few months ago, we announced our integration into Google+ Local to help more people easily access Zagat scores, editorial reviews and recommendations,’ says Zagat Managing Director Bernardo Hernandex. “Now, we’re making the mobile app experience more consistent with the one you’re already accustomed to across Google+ Local, Google Search and Google Maps.”
“Through our app you can browse thousands of restaurants in the world’s top destinations and refine your search with more than 100 filters and special features that matter to you, like whether the place has outdoor seating, or is child-friendly,” he adds. “Simply sign-in to Google+ to get the most from the app and to share your experiences with the Google+ community.”
The app (unlike the old Zagat app) is free. Here’s what it looks like:
Google has also adjusted the ratings system for Google+ Local on the desktop to reflect recent changes made to Google Maps for Android, offering a users a simplified rating system, which Google then uses to calculate its 30-point scores.
Google has added a new feature to Google+ where users can see the local businesses that others have reviewed. Under the “About” tab on a user’s profile page, there is now a section called “local,” which will show you how many reviews the user has. You can click through to see the reviews.
Profile Update: See the places your friends have reviewed!
Curious about the places your friends are eating, drinking, and hanging out? Now it's easy to find out. Click the "About" tab on any profile and you'll notice a new section for "Local" with a link to that person's reviews. The opinions of people you trust are now just a click away!
If you are following people on Google+ whose tastes you trust, this could be a good way to discover new businesses and restaurants. Here’s what the page looks like when you click through:
Google has been rolling out an update to its local ratings system. As you may recall, Google recently made some changes to the system on Google Maps for Android, so users can choose between Poor/Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent. A similar system is now hitting the desktop experience.
Google’s Megan Stevenson posted the following to Google+ on Wednesday:
Today it’s easier than ever to write accurate, useful reviews on Google+ Local, thanks to the updated rating scale we rolled out. If you want to rate the food at a restaurant, or the quality of a mechanic, just choose "poor – fair," “good,” “very good,” or "excellent". Behind the scenes, we’ll convert your ratings into numbers and factor them into the business' precise 30-point score that shows up in Google+, Search and Maps.
Give it a try! Click on the Google+ Local icon in the left navigation bar, search for a local spot and click "Write a review.” Happy reviewing!
When Google announced the Android changes, it also launched “favorite” stars on the desktop experience (or brought them back rather).
Google’s ratings system, since the implementation of Google+ Local (taking the place of the old Google Places) has been the subject of some controversy with local businesses. Some claimed to be losing clicks, and others have had issues with reviews being deleted.
In May, Google announced Google+ Local, which would replace Place Pages, and overhaul Google’s entire local business review search results. We’ve written in the past about how the transition may be costing business clicks, and we’re still seeing some pretty upset businesses talking about Google deleting reviews, which again, could be costing them customers.
Car dealership Suzuki of Wichita has had a pretty bad experience with Google’s transition. The business has lost hundreds of reviews, which it considers to be a very valuable source of marketing. Company President, Scott Pitman, blogged about the situation, showing the timeline of events.
Aaron Wirtz, the dealership’s social media manager, tell WebProNews, “It’s difficult to quantify exactly how this has impacted our business. Luckily our repeat customers don’t need to check Google reviews to know they like doing business here, but how many potential customers found our listing and were turned away?”
Over the course of about a month and a half, Google deleted more and more reviews, according to the dealership. By July 15, the number of reviews had dropped from 418 to 405. By August 1, they had dropped from 405 to 281. By August 3, they had dropped from 281 to 9.
Think about that for a second. You had over 400 reviews for your business, many of which were positive, and that number was quickly reduced to 9. 3 or 4 of those 9, Wirtz tells us, were negative.
In the blog post, Pitman shared some screenshots, backing up the claims. Here, you can see the 418 reviews:
Here, you can see it with 9 Google reviews, which Google even displays right from the main search results:
It doesn’t necessarily reflect well on a business to have that small a number of reviews, regardless of the positive to negative ratio, unless perhaps the business is brand new. The company was founded in 2007, and claims to have been ranked the #1 Suzuki Automotive Retailer in the USA in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Note: In another screenshot that goes with the one above, it does show links to “more reviews,” totaling 169, still significantly less than what the company once had.
“We weren’t the only dealership in Wichita affected by this issue,” Wirtz notes. “But our case was definitely one of the most dramatic.”
“Many dealerships in Wichita have been so far unaffected, but one dealership in Wichita was left with nothing but 0/3 reviews, giving them a 0/30 average score,” he says.
Wirtz put out this video about the situation:
“During the bumpy transition from Places to Local, thousands of businesses lost the reviews customers submitted as well as those that Google had collected for them so far,” Pitman said in the blog post. “We’ve heard reports of businesses losing reviews as many as three times over the course of a 30 month period.”
“The problem was, the reviews vanished without warning or explanation, and affected many businesses who collected reviews with integrity,” he added. “Any attempt to contact Google would result in vague, canned answers citing an entire list of reasons why reviews may or may not have been removed. Even today, Google does not have a customer service team to answer questions about Google+ Local and online reviews, citing the reason that Local is a free service.”
Automotive News, who interviewed Mr. Pitman, shared a statement from Google on the matter, which said that Google seeks to prevent “spammy” content, even at the risk of sometimes removing legitimate reviews.
Wirtz tells WebProNews, “We don’t feel like any of the reviews were ‘spammy.’ Every review posted was written by a customer who had done business with us, contained specific information about the transaction, and most of the reviews mentioned members of our staff by name. None of the reviews contained links, irrelevant text, or any of the other characteristics commonly associated with spam posts.”
Google has restored some of the reviews. When we checked there were 54 of them (still a great deal less than the 418 the business had in mid-July.
“Most of these restored reviews do seem to be ones that were originally deleted,” Wirtz tells us. “We know that a few of these reviews are new, however.”
Luckily, for Suzuki of Wichita, the business has a rating of 27 (with 26-30 described by Google as “extraordinary to perfection”). That seems pretty good, and is unlikely to deter many potential customers.
Wirtz agrees that 27 seems “pretty good,”
“But if our customers have stated our business is 29/30, our average score should be posted as such,” he adds.
So how much help has Google been to this business, following the deletion of the reviews?
“The only verbal conversations we’ve had with Google have been with AdWords representatives, who sound very sympathetic and helpful, but because Google+ Local is not under their jurisdiction (no customer service department exists for that product), every conversation with them breaks down like this,” Wirtz tells us, outlining the process as:
1. We explain the situation to them (i.e. the missing reviews, etc)
2. They say they’ll check with someone they know who is a specialist in that area
3. Then we get an email back within 24-48 hours that contains canned responses why our reviews “may have” disappeared. None of the information contained in those emails was anything new–it all could be found in products forum posts
“The reappearance of some of our reviews is one of the most confusing aspects of this whole situation,” Wirtz says. “We were assured in two separate correspondences from Google that, if a review disappears, it would not return. At no point could any of the information from Google be described as helpful.”
Wirtz shares a response he says they got from Google in response to a Better Business Bureau complaint Suzuki of Wichita filed against the company:
“Thank you for reaching out. I’m very sorry to hear you’re having problems with reviews on your Google+ local page. It’s feedback that we’ve heard / have been hearing in the last few weeks and months. And trust me, we are taking the feedback to heart and working on improvements regarding the way we collect reviews. At this point, it is impossible for us to locate the reviews your business has unfortunately lost. We realize this may seem unfair, but our engineers are working on features to make the stability of reviews more (for lack of a better word) stable. Aaron, we, as Googlers and consumers, understand how important reviews are to a business and trust me when I say we’re working hard on making this a better experience for everyone. Thanks for your understanding.”
“Positive reviews are indeed as good as gold,” Pitman said in the dealership’s blog post. “What makes online reviews so much more compelling than word of mouth referrals is that one consumer can now reach thousands, perhaps millions of other people, and the review, once written, is permanently posted online for anyone to find. Or so we thought.”
On the flip side, one has to wonder how many negative reviews have also disappeared, possibly leading to users to businesses that won’t necessarily live up to the expectations they have from available, and more favorable reviews.
Do you see Google’s transition to Google+ Local, and deletion of reviews as a significant cost to businesses, or simply a necessary evil for Google to improve the user experience? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Google Places for iOS got a significant makeover yesterday, complete with a name change. In keeping with their plan to foist Google+ upon as many of their users as possible, Google Places is now Google+ Local.
The update, rolled out yesterday afternoon, changes little about the app except the name. The basic, Yelp-like functionality remains unchanged. When you open the app for the first time you’ll be prompted to sign in with your Google credentials. Once you’re signed in, you can start exploring the places around you. Google+ local breaks it down into several categories for you, including restaurants, hotels, bars, post offices, and more. Tapping a category – e.g., restaurants – brings up a list of businesses in your area. You can call, get directions, see map data, and read user reviews all from a business’s listing.
You can, of course, also rate a business and leave a review. This being Google+ Local and no longer Google Places, though, the reviews are no longer anonymous. If you’re signed into Google+ on the app, your name will be attached to your review. Fortunately, Google is kind enough to warn you about this and give you the chance to back out:
All in all, not a lot has changed here. This is basically still Google Places, but with a social makeover. If you despise Google+, then you’re not likely to be too pleased with this update, though you have the option of not signing in when you open the app. On the other hand, if you’re a huge Google+ fan, then this update will be right up your alley.
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