New Google Maps

Google has a new Google Maps coming out.  Here is a link to get an invitation to check it out.  New Google Maps Invite

Paid Advertising on Google and Bing

Some of you may have seen Bing's ads accusing Google of having only paid results on Google's Shopping Page.  I think Bing has a point, but on many of Bing's pages it is not always clear what is paid advertising and what is a search result.

The take away from this is that ad Google and Bing desire more revenue paid results over time will push aside natural search results.

Bing's partnership with Yelp is a failure.

In June of 2012 Bing partnered with Yelp to deliver "better" local results in the Bing Map.  To date those results have been terrible.  Take a search "Lawyer Fall River MA" as an example.  Today, the second and third businesses listed don't have websites and are not verified listings.  Why Bing drives its searchers to businesses that don't have websites seems more likely an error than a game plan.

Google Updates the Search Algorithm

Google confirmed that there is another Panda update to their algorithm.  The update will impact just over 1% of all search queries.  Keep an eye on your website traffic to be sure the update does not hurt your site.

Here is a graphic on how Google's searches have changed.  What this article does not say is that Google is constantly doing A/B testing.  This is showing the same search query two different results and determining which results people liked more.

Because of this testing often the display in MA can be different than in RI, and the display of the results change all the time.  By all the time, I mean it changes far too often to keep track of.

Screen shots on how Google has changed.

Here is a New York Times article on Google and its dominance of the Internet.  The reality is that everyone who wants to get business from their website has to pay attention to Google.  Because Google changes their algorithm frequently a "build it and let the website sit there" approach no longer works.

This is because of the changes Google makes and the need to adjust, but also because there is so much money being made through websites that if you are not keeping up and your competition is, your site will fall in the rankings.

NY Times Google Article

Reviews

On line reviews are valuable because they can increase the number of phone calls you get.  It used to be easy to get reviews posted on Google.  Just set up an account write a review and it appeared.

That has changed.  Now the reviews need to be linked to a name that is published. Reviews from an account that appear to be fake to the Google computers are never made public.

Other review sites like Yelp have set up a sting to catch people posting fake reviews.

The reality of reviews is that very few consumers post reviews of a business.  When a consumer has a great experience at a business they are not as motivated to post a review than a consumer that has had a bad experience.  A business that serves 1,000 customers a year may end up with three bad reviews and one good review.  The reality is that 950+ consumers had a good experience.  But you would not know that from reading the reviews.

Google's and Yelps attempts to make sure the review is written by a real consumer is a good step in the right direction.  But I don't think the reviews are a good indicator of how a business treats its customers.