Category: Google Places

Posted on

The Importance of Google and Bing Business Pages

Man sitting under a banner which says local business at a desk.

Connecting your business and social media efforts to your Google Business Profile and Bing Places for Business has never been more important as both Google and Microsoft will have their AI (Artificial Intelligence) search engines pull data (including images) from these accounts and show the information in the AI generated answers snapshot. Reviews from your profiles may also appear in organic results and AI generated content at the top of the page.  

It is time to ensure that all your information is correct on these two profiles and that you are making regular updates to keep the content meaningful to visitors. If you have not already asked us to assist you with these search engine business pages, please get with us now to check our service offerings and even on-demand optimizations. 

Updating your Bing Places for Business page is important because it helps increase your search traffic and can only help you get more organic traffic to your site. Bing Places is the platform where the profile info is set up. This includes account, list, submit, manage your client business. Bing Places enables local business owners to add their listing to Bing Maps.

For both Google and Bing, updating your business pages are important because these pages may appear in location specific searches. The more active you are on the platform, the more signals you send to Google and Bing that your listing is accurate and trustworthy.

Additionally both search engines use their local pages for gathering reviews and even allow you to link to the page when you ask clients to review your businesses and services.

So, these search engine business pages help you to:

Place organically for local searches
Gather customer reviews and showcase them
Showcase your business

Check out our website for our complete service listing and check to see if we can help you with the set up or optimization of a Google Business Page or Bing Places for Business page.

Posted on

Google is Continuing to Test New Google My Business Features and Components

Nancy McCord and Bandit

If you have not set up and regularly update your Google My Business page, now is the time to start getting serious about it. Google considers the Google My Business page important and is currently testing a number of features and enhancements.

We encourage you to read this article – what is of most value is the images that show several of these new enhancements actually from searches and how Google is handling services, reviews, and the addition of Google My Business Posts, Events, and Special Offers in Google Maps listings.

We have not been able to duplicate these searches to see the results ourselves, but we do know that when Google tests layouts and features it usually is about getting ready to rollout a wider test.

What is important to know is that if Google considers Google My Business important, so should you.

Of late other items that Google has tested in Google My Business are local service ads, a Google Guaranteed money back feature, and Google Verified – for vetted businesses.

With Google considering that the local experience and ability to find services “near me” is crucial to relevancy, Google My Business is just one part of the equation for web visibility and success in Google organic listings.

Posted on

Why Is Google My Business Verification So Hard?

Building Exterior
Building Exterior that Google does not like!

Google My Business verification should not be so hard! For owners of a single business verification is a snap – complete your profile, ask for a letter to be mailed to you, confirm the PIN number Google sends to you. But if you are an owner of multiple businesses that you run out of separate offices, brace yourself for the run around from Google when you try to verify a second business.

Just this last week, a supervisor at Google My Business finally told me that Google would never verify my client’s second account. We had been working diligently since October 11th to provide all the information and documentation pictures the Google staff said it needed for review. I have to say I was nearly foaming from the mouth when I heard that final response!

It is unthinkable that Google has such vague standards when it comes to business verification; rules that are not in step with small businesses located in the USA. Additionally, add a language difficulty , as the staff appears to all be located in India, and the difficulty grows exponentially.

Ridiculousness at Its Best

I was told to supply a photo of both suite doors and signage on each but as there was a wall between the two, Google did not like the image. I could not knock down a wall in order to provide the photo.

I was told to take a picture of exterior signage for the business, but as the client is in an office condo park, no businesses have exterior signage unless they own a whole floor. Another fail!

I was told to take a picture of the reception desk with the large company sign behind the receptionist. Okay let’s get real, this was a small business, they have an office, but not a glitzy reception area and no need for an inside sign, they know who they are! A fail again.

Finally, I was told that the font on the second business sign did not match the font on the sign on the first business. Wow, that was an eye opener!

Then I was told that due to the history of requests and images sent as we tried to give Google what they wanted for over a two month period, that they did not believe the client ran two businesses. So, the history of what I had sent to Google based on the account reps requests totally worked against the client.

Nothing should be this difficult to resolve, but it’s Google! Understand that on Google My Business verifications, Google does run the world.