Solving Problems & Seeing Success in Google Places:

The Basics

Presented by:Nyagoslav Zhekov, OptiLocal

“Listing” vs. “Cluster”

“Each local business listing on Google is in fact a giant 'cluster’ of information that we get from a few different places: Yellow Pages, for example, as well as other third-party providers.” (Source: Google Places Help articles)

Data Sources:

Local Business Center (Google Places for Business) Yellow pages and feed data providers Scraped content from other websites User Generated Content

How a “Place” is Created

Source: Joel Headley, Google Maps team, June 2009

Threshold for merging vs. creating a new cluster: Low threshold => merging data for different businesses High threshold => creating duplicates for the same business

The main determining factor - N.A.P.

Which data will be displayed: Trustworthiness of the source Recency of the data Completeness of the data Number of sources displaying the same data(Source: Egon Pasztor & Daniel Egnor, “Generating Structured Information” patent, 2006)

Google Decisions: Merging Data vs. Creating a New Cluster and Which Data to Display Publicly

(In order of their importance)

1. Owner-verified business data via Google Places2. Data via business directories:a) Yelp*b) Super Pagesc) City Searchd) Yellow Pagese) Info Groupf) Yahoo Localg) Insider Pagesh) Niche Industry websitesi) Others (Source: David Mihm, Local Search Ranking Factors, 2011)

3. Approved UGC4. Scraped data

Data Sources for Google Places

Source: Getlisted.org, 2009-2012

Source: Interview with Eric Stein, Search Engine Land, October 2008

Check your N.A.P. consistency Local Citation Finder (Whitespark) Local Search Scorecard (Yext) Getlisted.org (David Mihm, Inc.) Local SEO Check-up (Bright Local)

Be careful which account you use when claiming/creating the listing Check the email associated with this account frequently Update your listing frequently Follow the Google Places Quality Guidelines

Preventing Problems

Screenshot: Local Search Scorecard by Yext

When do problems occur? Reporting a problem via the “Report a problem” GP

frontend tool What is the “Report a problem” Action time Response rate Efficiency Reporting duplicates No option to report mergers

When the Problem Occurs

Editing the information via Map Maker What is Google Map Maker

o Basicso Availability

Editing a place

Deleting a duplicateo What is a duplicateo What is not a duplicate

Approval processo Trust systemo Google Reviewers

When the Problem Occurs (Cont.)

Using the troubleshooter

What is the troubleshooter

How the troubleshooter workso What you can reporto What you cannot report

Why it is the best optiono Response rateo Comparison with “Report a problem”

When the Problem Occurs (Cont.)

If Nothing Works? Give Up?

Not Yet!

Posting on the Google Places Help Forum (

www.google.com/support/forum/p/Places)

Posting recommendations

Top Contributors

Google Employees

Google Places Help Forum

1. Google Places help articles (http://support.google.com/places)2. Google Map Maker help articles (http://support.google.com/mapmaker)3. Understanding Google Places & Local Search Blog (http://

blumenthals.com/blog)4. Google Lat-Long Blog (http://google-latlong.blogspot.com)5. Local Search Ranking Factors, by David Mihm (http://

www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml)6. Google Places Troubleshooting: Best Practice for Dealing with a Merged

Listing, by Mike Blumenthal (http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/01/19/google-places-troubleshooting-best-practice-for-dealing-with-a-merged-listing)

7. How to Deal with Duplicate Listings on Google Places, by Nyagoslav Zhekov (http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/fix-duplicate-listings-google-places.html)

8. Google's Local Search Patent Application, by Bill Slawski (http://www.seobythesea.com/2006/09/googles-local-search-patent)

Useful Resources

THANK YOU!