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by Foster Web Marketing

Google Local changes name to Google Places by Foster Web Marketing

Google has decided to re-brand the Google Local Business Center as Google Places. With the re-branding, a few new features have been added:

• You can now apparently tell Google Local what areas your business services, and can also keep your address private if you operate a home-based business or have an office in an address where you don’t want potential clients visiting. More on this to come in terms of how this will help/affect your Google Local rankings as we monitor clients’ results.

• There is a new tag feature where you can pay $25 for your address/directions or website to stand out by being “tagged”. This means that they place a yellow tag next to whichever you choose which will apparently help it stand out. Once you pay the $25 you can track how many clicks/actions are obtained in the Google Places dashboard. We would hope that tagged listings have a better chance of ranking better but, once again, we’ll monitor this over the next few weeks.

• If you don’t have a photo of your business, don’t worry, Google Places has your back. They will upload a photo (likely taken by their Google Maps team) to your Google Places listing at no charge. We noticed that they were doing this for a few clients who had not yet claimed their listings a few months ago, so we think this is just the way to formally announce this feature.
• Last, but not least, Google is offering custom QR codes through Google Places. These CR codes are square bar codes that can be downloaded and placed on ads and business cards. Users of certain smart phones (likely any smart phone with a camera and downloadable apps) can then scan these codes and your Google Places profile will populate on their pone for directions, contact info, etc. How useful is this? We’ll test it out and let you know.

We JUST released our new (and free) Google Local report but obviously these changes haven’t been reflected yet. Either way, go take a look as the report shows how to optimize your Google Local profile and how to improve your local rankings.

About the author

George Murphy

George Murphy is the Web Marketing manager for Foster Web Marketing, the leader in website design for attorneys and attorney web marketing. To find out more visit http://www.fosterwebmarketing.com