Google My Business

In one of our previous blog posts, we had been talking about the Google Places updates saying that Google has been automatically upgrading Google Places listings from the old system to the new Google Places dashboard and creating Google Plus pages under the same Gmail address.

On the 11th of June, Google launched “Google My Business” which is a further integration for putting all Google services useful to businesses in one place, helping businesses connect with customers via Search, Maps, and Google+.

The former page management dashboard has been replaced by a cleaner-looking My Business page and it makes it easier than ever to update the business information. From that page, managers can post content, track analytics, respond to customers, and even launch Google Hangouts. The new system will also integrate with Google's AdWords platform and provide businesses with data about customers and engagement.



The main benefits of Google My Business for customer engagement can be summarized as below.

• Update your business info on Search, Maps, and Google+ to make it easy for customers to get in touch.
• Add photos of your business and a virtual tour of your business interior to help customers see what makes your business unique.
• Connect directly with your fans and customers by sharing news, events, and other important updates from your Google+ page.
• Stay on top of reviews from across the Web, and respond to Google reviews.
• Understand how people find and interact with your business using Custom Insights and integration with AdWords Express.

Signing up for Google My Business

You can simply click the “Get on Google” button at the top of the Google My Business homepage, and follow the steps to add your business information to Google. Please note that any edits will not appear on Google until you verify your business. If your business has ten or more locations, you can add them all at once using the bulk upload tool.

Business owners that had been using Places for Business or Google+ will be transitioned to the new platform. In other words, if you previously used Google Places for Business or Google+ Pages Dashboard to manage your business information, your account has been automatically upgraded to Google My Business.

This new platform will also be welcomed by people who manage non-local Google Plus pages.

If you have a local business and would like to discuss about your integrated local marketing strategy, you are always welcome to give our Digital Consultants a call on 01202 678777.

Author: Aysegul Yigitbasi

Quick Overview on Google Places Updates

As you may have noticed, Google has been automatically upgrading Google Places listings from the old system to the new Google Places dashboard and creating Google Plus pages under the same Gmail address. This resulted in the existence of two (or more) Google Plus Pages for a given local business - one for business and at least one for local.

Currently, it is not possible to merge two Google+ Pages (unless they are both of the type: local and for the same business at the same address). It is also not possible to pass followers from one page to another.

To make the decision to handle these accounts and to determine which of your pages should get the most exposure, you need to think about the following questions:

• What is the goal of your social presence and who is the target audience?
• Is the company national in scope or do most of its customers come from the immediate region?

Within this update , there has also been a change on the Google Places quality guidelines (changed on Feb 2014). You can now include a single descriptor to your business’ real-world title that helps customers locate your business or understand what your business offers. However, marketing taglines, phone numbers, store codes, or URLs are not valid descriptors.

Examples of acceptable titles with descriptors (in italics for demonstration purposes) are "Starbucks Downtown" or "Joe’s Pizza Restaurant". Examples that would not be accepted would be "#1 Seattle Plumbing", "Joe’s Pizza Best Delivery" or "Joe’s Pizza Restaurant Dallas".

If you are not sure about your Google Places settings, please review Google Places quality guidelines because failure to follow most of them will either keep you from being listed at all or from ranking well in Google.

If you have a local business and would like to discuss about your integrated local marketing strategy, you are always welcome to give our Digital Consultants a call on 01202 678777.

Author: Aysegul Yigitbasi

‘Street View’ Google Map Indoors Photos Go Live

After the Google Street View service that allows viewers to view the exterior of a business, Google adds a new feature to its Google map services by allowing users to see 360-degree street-level images of the interior of various businesses, including restaurants, hotels, retailer shops and gyms etc.

This new feature has been discussed in news and in social platforms for a while and we have been watching and waiting for this evolution since before April 2010 when Google invited US businesses to have their business photographed.

According to BBC news, Google officially announced a pilot project in selected locations including London, Paris and a number of cities in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US.

"Building on the Google Art Project, which took Street View technology inside 17 acclaimed museums, this project is another creative implementation of Street View technology, to help businesses as they build their online presence," a company spokesman told the BBC.

"We hope to enable businesses to highlight the qualities that make their locations stand out through professional, high-quality imagery." he added.

Having indoor photos on Google Maps, which are taken by Google photographers, will be valuable for local businesses that depend on local patronage. Customers check where to visit or eat/drink on the web and give importance to ambiance, merchandise, layout, or decor when choosing where to go. Thus, this application will definitely contribute to a businesses’ ‘online presence’. Businesses have an opportunity to become successful and benefit strategically from the interior photography.

This development made Rocktime Flashlight team excited as we optimise location based platforms like Google Maps as part of our local targeted campaigns created for various clients, in order to increase local awareness and reach. We have already applied to Google on behalf of our boutique hotel clients to have their beautiful rooms and sports facilities photographed by Google photographers. In brief, we, Flashlight executives believe that Google Map Indoors Photos will bring extra value to local businesses, and we hope this service will be available in more cities soon.

Our Google Places optimisation for clients usual results in page one positioning for preferred keywords, after a period of 4 to 6 weeks, depending on competitiveness. Please ask the Rocktime Flashlight Team if your business would like to achieve this success as part of an integrated digital marketing strategy.


Author: Aysegul Yigitbasi

Google get their Swag on!

This month we’re talking "local targeting" at Rocktime and it looks like we’re not the only ones. April sees the release of the Google Places Business Kit Catalogue! Google is offering free promotional materials for qualifying businesses, allowing business owners to order in a whole range of goodies, from window stickers to neon signs and fortune cookies to sugar packets; a variety of goods for a variety of business types.

The grand plan is that all of the free stuff is to be used by business owners to encourage their customers and clients to review them in Google Places. Unfortunately at the moment, it’s not quite so ‘local’ to us in the UK – currently only businesses in the US cities of Madison, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Portland and Austin are eligible, but hopefully time will tell if these Google goody bags spread in popularity! The Google Places Catalogue is just one of many indicators that Google is getting serious about Local Search!

If you’re interested in getting in on the action too, and want to know more about how Local Search can benefit you and your website then why not get in contact with the Flashlight Search Marketing Team at Rocktime and see how they can help you out.


Author: Alice Cheetham

Google Adwords Location Extensions

As it is “Operation Local Search Marketing” month, this month here at Rocktime, thought to share with you how much we love, Google AdWords' move to add location extensions to the PPC account adverts. Great example of Fitness First using this service above (see image or Google search Fitness First).

Basic summary is, you link your Google Places Adverts to your AdWords campaign. This is another reason why we have been raving recently/couple of years to our clients to get everything in one Google account.

Google AdWords location extensions are a local ad format designed to help local customers find your local business. Watch this video to find out how to transition your local business ads to location extensions in five steps. Alternatively contact the Flashlight Search Marketing Team to arrange this for you.




If your Google AdWords campaign is focused on local business and you have more than one place of operation (Pizza Hut is an example given on above video), then you really may want to consider using local ads, enriched with additional information, such as address and phone number. A big bonus is that with this feature you will be able to target multiple locations within the same campaign.

Google will show a local extension in the ad as default – this will be based on the users query ie: Pizza Delivery London and the users IP.

We believe that this is a perfect strategy for local targeting within AdWords and are implementing this for a number of clients with more than one local location. Let us know what you think and send us a comment below!

Read more about setting up your Google AdWords over at the Local Extensions Best Practice Guide from Google.

Author: Sarah Griffiths