Google Places for Local – Now More Than Ever Vital
UBL is following actively the changes Google has made to merge Google Places for businesses into Google+ Local Pages.
There are some key messages for our customers:
- The UBL process for claiming both Google Places and Google Plus is more important than ever; for now, the Google Places environment is still the place to manage the identity that gets merged into Google Plus Local Pages, but you will need a Google Plus account in order to maximize your long term presence, especially the all-important reviews.
- As these processes merge entirely, UBL will migrate immediately to the new methods for creating the “claimed” local business listing as defined by Google. You should not be concerned, assuming you have purchased one of our Premium or Professional packages that claim listings.
- Google is handling most of the changes the public see, from the look and feel of Places to Plus local pages. However, you would be encouraged to be more active in adding tools such as the Google “+1s” on your Web pages and having customers add you to their “Circles”. This may be required in order for them to provide reviews.
- Currently, these changes have note impacted the rankings, but it would be foolhardy not to stay optimized via the UBL service, for your Google Plus presence.
There are many informative articles on the Web about these changes as they relate to online presence optimization, but look to these pages and to our customer service for additional answers as it relates to UBL’s process.
see:
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-management-15223.html
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/05/31/google-local-qs-and-some-as/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UnderstandingGoogleMapsYahooLocalSearch+%28Understanding+Google+Maps+%26+Yahoo+Local+Search%29
Local Search Optimization, Online presence
google places, google plus local pages