Disqus - Friends of TimColling

Re: Dental Website Marketing: DROA Marketing Scheme

Linda Buquet — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:10:11 -0000

Great that you pointed this out Jim, for Dentist who may not be aware.

I agree with what John said. There are a number of other companies too that try to get away with this scam. However it sounds like DROA may be specifically targeting Dentists as one of their niches.

ANOTHER SCAM - or at least dishonest marketing ploy that's making the rounds at Dental offices is the following.

They call your front desk and say they work for Google or cleverly say it differently, like we are calling "on behalf of Google". They tell you they want to give you a free listing on Google local (now called Google Places) OR say they are calling to verify your existing listing. Then they try different scam tactics to get your credit card so they can bill you for their services. I've had it happen to a lot of clients.

So warn staff to be careful if they get a call from someone claiming to be Google. One of my offices was smart enough to tell the guy that she'd have her marketing department call him back. She called me all excited and said Google just called to verify their listing but she didn't know if she should, so got the number for me to call the guy that said "he was from the Google Verification Department".

I called pretending to work at the practice just to hear their pitch and see what they had to say. It was a company called {Company name removed} and they tried over and over to pressure me into their SEO service.

I specialize in Google Places optimization and I can tell you for a fact Google NEVER calls clients. They barely even reply on the Google help forum and are extremely short staffed in the Google Places department. So warn your staff if Google calls, it's not really Google.

Hope this helps!
Linda Buquet

Re: Dental Website Marketing: DROA Marketing Scheme

Linda Buquet — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:15:52 -0000

I am so sorry John and can't apologize enough!

I was MISTAKEN and {Company name removed} is NOT the company that called that office. I have since learned that {Company name removed} is one of the reputable companies out there that does local optimization and I just made a serious mistake.

That story above happened at one of my other client's offices who is a Chiropractor. My warning for Dental offices was because I often here similar stories from Dental practices I work with. I even have a Dentist right now that has a duplicate listing we could not track down and finally realized staff talked to someone that "said" they were Google verifying their account and it was a SEO company that claimed their listing and created a duplicate filled with spam keywords and breaking Google's rules a couple different ways. So now I am trying to clean up the mess.

So this IS a problem to be aware of, HOWEVER I mistakenly mentioned {Company name removed} and they were not the company that did it. They are a reputable company.

I am so sorry. I will contact Wealthy Dentist and ask them to edit the original post ASAP.

Re: Google Maps Missing Reviews & Duplicate Listings Issues

Linda Buquet — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:26:02 -0000

Hi Barry,

Wanted to issue a little correction. That was MIRROR duplicates, not minor duplicates.

Here's an example... There is only one listing in the dashboard but Google created a mirror dupe that looks the same and has the same name. (See the top 2, the 3rd is a regular dupe).

http://maps.google.com/maps...

Re: Local Search O-Pack and the Art of Title Tags

Linda Buquet — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:22:58 -0000

Hi Mike, great insights and thanks for sharing.

In doing a lot of reverse engineering and testing of the new algo, I've made some similar observations. One thing I've been testing recently is phone in title because there often isn't room for keywords, city, name and everything wish you could put in the title.

One of my clients is #1 for Chiropractor in a very large competitive market. Many months ago I told him to put phone in his title tag and he shot up in the organic rankings. Then many of his competitors started adding their phone numbers. At one point almost every chiro on page 1 had their phone in title. Just checked his rankings today and he's still #1 and 3 out of the top 4 listings have phone in title. So not sure if that's helping them rank or if the most aggressive marketers just copied my client and it's a coincidence. But I'm trying it with some new clients now, so I can measure the results.

Another potential benefit to phone in title, is some smart phones will automatically turn a phone number into a click-to-call link. So even though all the listings will have a small phone # at the bottom of the listing, your client will also have a big bold click-to-call phone number at the top of their listing.

Re: Google Merges Hotpot with Places

Linda Buquet — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:11:07 -0000

Yes lots of changes have happened just in the past week, not only with HotPot merging into it's rightful place, but local inventory integration in Places, latitude check-ins and everything else. More big changes on the way too I'm sure.

We were all talking over on Blumenthal's blog about all the Places problems, many of the changes we'd like to see and the G reorg. Then I posted over on the Google Places blog and asked Jeff Huber the new VP over Places to please read the feedback. He actually showed up at Mike's and posted that he's reading and listening. He comes from the engineering side. So I'm hopeful some improvements will be coming.

Re: Monitor Your Local Search Engine Positions with Local Search Rank Tracker

Linda Buquet — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:56:03 -0000

I've been a BETA tester for this tool for quite awhile and it works great. I've been BETA testing others too and this is by far the best. HUGE time saver.

Kudos to BrightLocal!

Re: Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Unroll Markup Project

Linda Buquet — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:48:02 -0000

Good write up Rob!

I just blogged this in detail too, specifically as it pertains to LOCAL search and think it could be huge for those that really understand the implications and leverage it ahead of their local competition. Gave some key quotes I found in new Google help docs and from the Schema site that are key to understanding how all this could help boost local rankings.

Re: Google Places Phone Verification Not Working

Linda Buquet — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:53:06 -0000

Actually Google seldom allows phone verification for most businesses any more at all. They announced the change maybe 3 months ago.

Occasionally if she has LOTS of trust in a listing because it's a long standing business with clean upstream data she'll offer the phone option. But as an extra spam measure snail mail is now the predominant option offered.

However the above bug is still an issue in the rare cases that phone verification is an option.

Re: Google Introduces City Sites: Will It Cause Partners to Rebel?

Linda Buquet — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:21:00 -0000

Hi Rob,

When I 1st scooped this story on my blog Monday, I was not sure if I had discovered something new that Google had not yet announced or if it was just a small test in a couple markets. But then they officially announced it today.

I have some of the same questions you do, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Re: How to Market Your Business Using Google Places

Linda Buquet — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:28:38 -0000

Thanks INC for doing an article about Google Places.

Myself and several of the other leading Google Places Optimization experts just participated in David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors 2011. If anyone wants to learn more about how the Google Places algo works that document, which comes out yearly is considered the "Holy Grail" when it comes to Google Place Optimization.

I wanted to share feedback about 2 things in the article that I and most of the other pros in the industry I think would disagree with.

"It used to be you could simply fill out your business listing on
Google and see it in the seven pack a few weeks later. These days, if
your listing doesn't have a 100 percent score, you can forget about
being listed in the first seven local businesses that Google displays
for local results."

Actually having a 100% score isn't necessary at all to rank in the top 7. I mean I always fully optimize client's listings to 100% - it's part of doing a good job BUT it's not a ranking factor per se. In fact you can find hundreds of #1 rankings in Google local results that have 0 images, 0 videos and even Place pages that have not been claimed. So that quote is incorrect.

The OLD Places algo (prior to Oct 27th 2010) had about 50 factors that contributed to the ranking order. Now with the new merged also all the organic SEO ranking factors also play a big part. So it's much harder to rank in the top 7 now. It takes a well optimized Place page, a well optimized website AND certain local hooks that tie it all together.

"You should nominate just one category"

Bad advice, I fear. The keywords in the categories are primarily the only ones that will rank. So for example if you are a Dentist and that's the only category you put in Places, then you likely won't rank for Cosmetic Dentist, Family Dentist and the other keywords you may want to rank for. Google allows 5 categories, so use all 5 if it's appropriate for your business.

You can also create custom categories and only need to use one of the categories Google provides. However read the Google Place guidelines 1st as there are only certain types of keywords you can put in categories and if you do it wrong Google can reject your listing.

Hope this helps and best of luck!
Linda

Re: Top 7 Tricks to Rank in Google Places

Linda Buquet — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:57:03 -0000

Good points Cale!

I wanted to reinforce and add a couple things.

When Cale mentioned being sure everything matches, that means EXACT match. If on the site the name is Dr. John Smith, but on Dental directories the name is John L. Smith DDS but on the Place page you use the practice name ABC Dental OR you use Ste. B when everywhere else the business is listed at #B then it can cause problems.

Also wanted to note, the most common reason businesses get banned in Google Places is for adding extra keywords and/or city to the business name. PLUS this messes up your citations, because they need to be an EXACT match and now you've changed your business title.

2nd most common mistake is adding city to categories. Don't do it.

I also wanted to remind everyone that regular SEO factors carry the most weight right now, with the new Google Local MERGED algo that started showing up Oct 27th. When I broke the story about my discovery of the new merged layout on Mike Blumenthal's blog way back in July, I didn't realize the entire algo and local search game would be changing.

Since then I've done lots of reverse engineering of the algo and here is my take on things. The OLD Google Places algo used 50 ranking factors that most people know by now. NAP consistency, reviews, citations, location and many of the things we cover in David Mihm's Local Ranking Factors (which is the industry bible for local.)

However the new MERGED (blended 0-Pack) algo is much more reliant on your web site and traditional organic SEO factors. PLUS it takes having certain local hooks to tie it all together or the merged listing won't happen.

So reviews and citations don't carry as much weight with the new MERGED algo as they did prior to Oct. 27th. (As of today, subject to change on G's whims. ;-))

NOTE: You still need to optimize the site and Place page however, because there are 2 algos at play. Many keywords still pull the old 7 pack style layout and when you see that format the OLD algo is at play which is weighted more toward # of citations and reviews. A little hard to explain without pics. I'm doing a big post today with screen shots that illustrates how the new merged algo works.

Hope this helps!
Linda

Re: Google Maps Bug: Business Pending Review

Linda Buquet — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:42:33 -0000

The problem is reportedly fixed.

Brianna posted this AM:
http://www.google.com/suppo...

As many of you have noticed, this issue has been resolved by our
engineers. Listings that reverted to “Pending – being reviewed” on
7/18/11 are restored to Active.

If you still have any listings that are marked as “Pending”, please review the attached FAQ.

Re: The 3 Pillars of Local Search Reviews

Linda Buquet — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:47:17 -0000

WOW Mike! You've really outdone yourself on this one! LUV the image!!!

I've been commenting bits and pieces of my review strategy here and there to correct bad info/assumptions ever since this update hit. My strategy is almost identical to yours.

I've had people ask me if I could just write a big article about review strategies and why I say it's still important to diversify. (Mainly Dentists, like the one you show above, have been asking, due to my Tuesday post about the whole DemandForce review issue.)

You just saved me a TON time. I'll just send people here instead of trying to write a book about it and save my carpal! Will probably blog it today if I have time and link to this post and one other really good one from this week.

THANKS!

Re: Google: The big baby that won't grow up

Linda Buquet — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:03:25 -0000

Thanks Bill for quoting me in your story.

Interesting new side note, was just going to email you about this for this story, but I guess I was too late.

Google stated in the original NYTimes story I was quoted in, that they were working on solutions to fix the business marked as closed problem "in coming days". They've known about this problem that severely impacts small businesses for weeks!

Yesterday Mike Blumenthal (who was also quoted in the Times article) tested to see if Google had stuck to their word and fixed the problem. (Previously he had closed Google's own Place pages for their offices around the country to prove how easy it was to mark a viable business as closed)

He tried to close his own Place page to see what would happen. It only took 1 click and his business was marked PERMANENTLY CLOSED. Google still does nothing to verify the business is really closed and does not even send an email letting them know it happened.

Quote from Mike's Blog yesterday:

"Shortly after the article appeared in the Times,
Google apologized and noted that a fix was imiminent saying “These improvements
will be implemented in the coming days”.

I was curious what “coming days” meant. This time, rather
than experimenting on Google’s Places Listing, I experimented on my own listing
at our main office in Bradford Pa. Yesterday at about noon and five, my listing
was reported as closed…

Within 12 hours… the office was
marked as “permanently closed”.

It was not just marked as “reported to be closed” but
“permanently closed” and no email notification was sent to the claiming
business owner (me)."

So not only is there little in the way of support, but fixes to known problems also typically take weeks.

Again as I mentioned in the interview, if we were talking about a free service that is take it-or-leave-it like Reader that's one thing. If it's buggy and you can't get support there are other options and you just switch to another service.

But when we are talking about Google Places, an incredibly buggy product that is not a choice but a 'must have' for most small business, support is really necessary!

Re: Becoming A Google Top Contributor

Linda Buquet — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:11:20 -0000

I was just recently invited to be a TC in the Google Places forum and it's amazing to now be able to actually escalate a problem and get Google to look at and solve it.

Not sure about the other G forums, but Google Places is really stepping it up and trying to be more responsive to user problems. So while I've always been able to TRY to help folks on the forum with my own brand of advice, some problems can only be fixed by an engineer OR a policy change or whatever. So it's great to be able to escalate those and really help get users a solution.

Have to give Kudos to Vanessa the Places Community Manager who is really pushing hard for change in Google Places and making a big difference. Not only in the Google Places forum but on many other levels!

Re: Google Maps Lists Wrong Phone Number For Busy NYC Hospital

Linda Buquet — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:10:33 -0000

I'm a Places Top Contributor and have been trying to help the hospital in the forum. Google engineers and several people are involved. It's a super complicated case but they are working on it.

Re: Google Maps Lists Wrong Phone Number For Busy NYC Hospital

Linda Buquet — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:09:51 -0000

It was an extremely complicated data cluster. Tons of diff departments with diff #s. TONS of duplicate listings due to bad upstream data. Multiple merged listings all clustered into one.

It's kinda like when a chain necklace gets totally tied up in knots. Just unraveling one link of the chain does not fix the whole mess.

That's my non-engineer explanation anyway. BUT stressing that what I said above is due to a very unique and complicated situation.

In a normal situation with a single location that has a wrong number, yes someone can just change a number and that's all there is to it.

Anyway it's fixed now. YEA!

Re: Google Places Post To Your Place Page Broken Again

Linda Buquet — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 11:20:00 -0000

I believe it's been fixed for a couple days now. Many of the users I was helping in the Places forum reported their updates showing and all the ones I've done for clients finally showed up on Tues.

I'll confirm with Vanessa, cuz if it is indeed fixed that sentence needs editing.

Re: Yellow Pages Sites Beat Google In Local Data Accuracy Test

Linda Buquet — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:01:12 -0000

Good point Marc!

Since I fight with Google Places duplicate listings constantly and ALL my clients have problems with duplicates, I'm surprised the number is not higher. I do realize my numbers are skewed because I specialize in professionals that are more prone to dupes than say Plumbers are, but still.

Also interesting to see Places has the highest percentage of address errors. 12.5%. I work in the Places forum helping folks with problems daily so see lots of errors, but still 12% seems pretty high.

Re: Google Places Only Showing 10 Results Without A More Results Option

Linda Buquet — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:44:14 -0000

I reported it to Vanessa yesterday right after I blogged it. Assuming it's a pagination bug and not by design, but who knows for sure. Waiting to hear more.

Re: Google Maps To Add "We've Moved" Message

Linda Buquet — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:34:09 -0000

I've been pushing for this with her and the team too.

That yellow "This business is PERMANENTLY closed" can def cause a loss of customers.

In another recent post all someone did was add a suite # and the advice was given to CLOSE the Place page and start a new one. I advised that was not a good option because then someone searching for that business would see a closed sign below the listing even though still located at that address.

Re: Google Maps/Places Requiring Business Licenses For Verification?

Linda Buquet — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:16:01 -0000

This was a unique situation due to a very specific issue that does not come up often. They don't do it often at all, so don’t worry it's not the new 'norm'.

Re: Google Maps/Places Requiring Business Licenses For Verification?

Linda Buquet — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:13:05 -0000

Nyag, it's in the private TC forum so you can find it there. Since I'm under NDA don't know if I can post it here. But it was NOT a big deal and again, fairly unique and would not come up very often.

Re: Videos Go Missing From Google Maps Pages

Linda Buquet — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:07:49 -0000

I think just some of the listings in that post were fixed.

I believe videos are missing on most if not all Place pages, unless you maybe just posted a new one. All my clients are missing and I've checked lots of competitive key phrases where most Places are well optimized and have vids and no one has videos.

Vanessa is checking with engineers today and should have an update.

Linda

Re: Moving? Google Wants You To Close Your Business!

Linda Buquet — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:51:26 -0000

Here's the deal.

If you mark your listing as closed, as you know you get that nasty "this place is permanently closed" marker big and bold on your listing, right?

How many times do you see Google MERGE 2 listings with the same name and phone #? It happens quite often, especially if still in same city.

So the risk you run marking the old one closed too is that if it merges with your new location, it will look like your new location is permanently closed as well. We’ve had that problem come up on the forum as well. It can be a bear to get it untangled too.

The reason Vanessa suggests closing the old one to begin with is that G just does not handle moves well and will keep changing your address back, unless you change all your citations which is a bear and you'll never get them all changed.

So either way you risk problems, just because the G algo chokes on moves.

Barry, I assume you don't have customers look you up online and just walk in very often. If this was a store, I'd be torn and possibly give different advice. But in your case, if I were you, knowing all I know, I would edit the listing. Try to clean up citations. Realize the address may change on you and if it does, you'll just need to use the troubleshooter to get it fixed.

My 2 cents.

Linda