#B2C Google Local To Do List for Businesses and History

Join +Stephan Hovnanian and I as we have an enlightening important conversation with our featured expert, +Mike Blumenthal to talk about a website's local presence and what business owners need to know. We'll also get into some unravel issues that come up.

This show will cover two parts. First, FINDING all versions of you and your business on Google... How do they search for that on Local, the new business pages, YouTube and G+.

When you find all versions, where is the best place to start the merge and/or delete?

What about when they have more than one location?

The verification process to identify ownership and take control.

As important as the new business page changes are, these first steps are critical to know the mess before you can focus and hit the local pages hard. 

Then we'll dive in with Mike about the new Places changes on Google. Here is his post http://bit.ly/finchshovi2l1 on the topic of Google Local:
GOOGLE STARTS PROMOTING MY BUSINESS WITH PERSONALIZED DIRECT EMAIL & HANGOUT

Mike Blumenthal IS Mr. Google Local - he is THE expert on all things Google Local. Please check out his blog category on the topic:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/category/google-plus/

I think I'll be hiring him for my own tangled mess.

Jump to the video here >

or read the highlights first here:

Some highlights include:

02:59 How local search has evolved by +Mike Blumenthal 
04:38 Google Plus is an advertising environment, Maps is a directory environment
04:52 Mike talks about the bus ride to the current search results method.
06:50 +Stephan Hovnanian   asks what businesses need to feed Google, as far as correct information.
07:45 Top data providers:   #infousa     ,  #localeze  and  #acxiom  
09:00 Several ways to influence the data and results
09:40 NAP: Name, Address, Phone Number - must be consistent EVERYWHERE - not just Google.
11:00 Start with a NAP Audit to verify they have your right location and info.
12:20 step 2: Go to maps sites:   #navtech   #teleatlas and #openstreetmap   to see how your business address resolves.
13:15 do the same on Google maps. If they can't find you, you can't close the sale!
15:50 +Chad Russell   comment about citations.
17:15 Local prominence - such as the Chamber of Commerce.
18:15 Don't forget about local business guides and listing sites.
20:00 The coveted 7 Pins on page one of Google search an the map to the right.
22:40 - A fabulous profile image is critical.
23:35 Q from +Jennifer Mortensen   Do reviews factor into rankings?
5+ reviews will give you a ranking bump.
25:30 Google will use driving directions for results if there are no reviews to consider.
26:00 How frequently do people post reviews for local businesses? 
56% of 1000 surveyed in US said NEVER, 22% less than once per year.
27:54 Phone numbers are the KEY GLUE that hold a data cluster together. 
29:00 If Google calls you to confirm your business, you'd better be answering it with the name you have in your listing and not a variation!
31:30 Comment from +Linda Buquet   regarding location prominence and centroid - how it's changed over the years.
33:20 Q from +Christopher Vogelmann   - Does the Twitterverse affect our search rankings. Jump to here to find out.
35:44 - +Susan Finch  says the best advice she can give a business, "Be BETTER at what you do! Be the best." that's how you affect rankings, reviews and more.
37:00 plug for Mike's service, http://getfivestars.com

Here is the gift for today's show - a PDF checklist to get you started. I'll post it early so you can do some checking before the show:
The PDF gift is here: http://bit.ly/finchshovi2d/