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Responding to More Change on Google Places Pages

Google rolled out the latest of their near-weekly changes to Google Places. The latest change is identified on Google's blog and a tidy video can be found on YouTube. We had a nice, proactive contact by our Account Executive which also gave us a PDF (which can be shared upon request).

So what’s all the fuss? Google isn’t very good at all this communicating stuff normally but the changes they have just made are quite drastic. Here’s what it looks like for one dealer…

On 5/26 an example dealer places page looked like:

Today, 5/30/12 it looks like:

Where did the calls to action go? Does Google not want to engage consumers any longer to “Upload a Photo” or “Write a Review”? Of course they do, just not on this page anymore! Confused? Stay with me. So Google buys Zagat last year and starts moving their search algorithms to favor social content (have you seen all those +1’s coming up yet?), then introduces the “Knowledge Graph." See video information here, and yes, that is only 1,500 views in 2 weeks – perhaps I am the only one that cares :( “Knowledge Graph” is really not as much a graph as it is a suggestion on what Google thinks you should be searching for vs. what you actually did search for- but I digress.

Your customers can still leave reviews, no problem. All they need to do is the following:

Locate your business on Google +
Click on the listing
Select “Write a Review”
Logon to Google +
Rock

Having trouble visualizing those steps? Here you go:

Step #1: Locate your Google + listing – it’s under “more” on the left nav

Step 1.5: Ah… see it here!

Step 2 & 3: Search for a business, select a business

Step 4: “Write a Review”

Step 5: If you are logged in, give the business a 0, 1, 2, or 3 quality ranking, add comments, and “Publish”

Easy as 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5 ... right?

Or you can simply identify your corresponding Google+ page ID (not your Google Places ID)… something like this and then send all your customers there to enroll in Google + and then leave a review of your dealership!
Phew! I was worried for a moment!
It is clear that:

Google wants to promote Google +
Google is going to disrupt the social and reputation landscape by:

Moving to Zagat’s review format
Acquiring more information on categories relative to specific industries. Automotive clearly only has “Quality” thus far but restaurants, for example, have many more.

Reviews, although hard to leave as a consumer, are even more valuable and prominent than ever.

Tired of trying to figure all this out on your own or working with companies that don’t know how to drive authentic customers to sites that matter? Check out Prime Response and contact us today to learn how you can successfully drive your online reputation!

Responding to More Change on Google Places Pages

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