On May 30, 2012 Google Places made a colossal change when the “Places” pages were replaced in their entirety with Google+ Local pages. Some Waukesha residents or business owners may be asking, what is Google+ Local?
Essentially Google+ Local is a profile of your local business listing on Google+ – Google’s own version of social media.
Google’s Marissa Mayer, (previous) Vice President of Local, Maps & Location Services, posted on her Google+ page that approximately 80 million Google Place pages worldwide have been converted into 80 million Google+ Local pages as a part of the new campaign to make local search a more dynamic Google+ Local pages. Rather than a static page, Google+ Local pages are significantly more versatile and “social,” with functionality that is equivalent to Facebook and Twitter.
Why the Change?
When originally launched, Google was anticipating that “Places” would inspire interaction between merchants and business owners, and perhaps that “Places” would be used regularly to communicate with customers and prospects. However, for whatever the reason that prospect didn’t pan out, in part due to the design limitations of Places pages themselves.
With the new changes there are certain to be many business owners and developers who need to acclimate themselves with the new layout and format. It does take a little getting used to, but once you play around a little bit you too will discover that it a much more logical approach for a local listing in the social media age.
The Pitfalls
The only pitfall that I have experienced thus far is updating the “Places” business details for any Waukesha location. Whether a glitch in the transfer of “Places” to Google+ Local, or simply the effect of Penguin, it seems to take a very long time for address and other details about a business to change or resolve in the published listing. For instance, two weeks ago I changed the address and business title for a clients business and the published version has yet to reflect those changes. As with anything in Google’s search results lately, I have learned to be very patient as they sharpen and hone their search results with algorithmic tweaks.