Google My Business for Places

June 19, 2014 By Bobbie Grennier

Bobbie Grennier
Bobbie Grennier does Google Search Marketing, My Business/Places Optimization, Google+ Local SEO. Google Local Pro offers Advanced My Business Consulting and Santa Cruz Web Designer, Local SEO, Internet Marketing.

Google Science Fair (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Common questions about Google My Business.

Cost? Totally free service that Google provides for business owners to help integrate their services and products onto Google’s search engine results.

What’s the difference between Google My Business, Google Places for Business, and Google+ Pages Dashboard?

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. Google My Business makes it easier than ever to update business information across Google Search, Maps and Google+. Google My Business complements your existing website by giving your business a public identity and presence on Google. The information you provide about your business can appear on Google Search, Maps and Google+.

How do I manage multiple business locations?

If your business has ten or more locations, you can add them all at once using the bulk upload tool. Go to Google My Business Locations to upload and edit your locations. Learn More Google offered up this Google Hangout for you to gather more information about Google My Business: Watch the replay of the Google Hangout for My Business.

Or watch the video below:

If you find you are still having issues with Google’s switch from Places to the new My Business structure, please feel free to contact me. Overall I’m finding that I really like the new structure because it brings many services into one location. It is however still not integrated all the way with other essential services like Adwords, although you can access Adwords Express from the new dashboard.

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Google+ Local Pro
. Santa Cruz, CA, 95062 USA
seolocalplaces@gmail.com • (831) 854-7447

Questionable SEO Practices

June 6, 2014 By Bobbie Grennier

The Rainmaker Institute charged Seikaly & Stewart of Farmington Hills, Michigan, $49,000 for optimization services to increase their firm’s visibility in Google.

That posted by Jennifer Slegg in August 2013, reporting the SEO company called The Rainmaker Institute, had found itself being sued by one of its own attorney clients for basically producing less than promised Google search results for that client.

I attended one of The Rainmaker Institute’s intensive weekends a few years ago and went through all their courses where they explained their version of website best practices, search engine optimization and internet marketing. It was an overwhelming amount of information and how-to sound bites for some 30 attorneys in the room. I was the only SEO professional in attendance. As we got to know each other, the Rainmaker team eventually realized that I knew far more about Google than they did. At one point, they actually threw the conversation to me to explain an aspect of Google related SEO for the whole room of lawyers. Later the Rainmaker team did try to recruit me, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable with some of their SEO views.

I wrestled with my decision not to do more with them because I really wanted to help attorneys do better online and rank better in the search engines, but I’m glad I kept working privately with just a select few law firms because it has been far more rewarding for me personally.

News of this law suit originally broke on Lawyerist by Sam Glover and I have to agree with his take on Rainmaker:

Regardless whether the Rainmaker Institute actually has anything valuable to sell, it’s pitch reminds me of those late-night infomercials that promise to teach you to get rich from flipping houses or selling gold if you will just attend a very expensive seminar at a hotel near the airport. It’s all selling, no substance.

So, I titled this blog post Questionable SEO Practices because of several factors I’m noticing.

First, companies like Rainmaker and Scorpion who have been solely focused on the legal profession are starting to pull back some of their service offerings. And if they’re not, then maybe they should be. It’s become a catch-22 situation where SEO professionals find themselves caught in between Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and their own very litigious clients.

The big question is what constitutes “good” backlinks? And in the face of all of Google’s algorithm changes, how will any SEO professional be able to provide definitive results? One thing for sure, is that this case will be closely watched by the SEO providers. I found this legal commenter’s point of view very interesting:

With Google constantly changing their Guidelines and not announcing those changes until after the fact, it leaves the SEO professional between a rock and a hard place… and that’s just how Google wants it.

From the complaint it seems that at issue is the type of links that The Rainmaker Institute was using to link to their client sites. There are mentions of auto-generated links, and the links from what appears to be blog spam, as well as links that were poor quality, with the vast majority of them created through link farming techniques. It seems to have been hit by the Google Penguin updates.

From an SEO point-of-view, links that are good today may not be good tomorrow. Without Google telling us definitively what they consider good and bad links, or what looks spammy to them, whether it is or not… Google holds the cards to its algorithms very close to the vest and they’re not giving away the recipe to the secret sauce. Which is why SEO professionals will tell you that what works today may not be what works tomorrow. Services delivered today, may not on be on the menu tomorrow.

Also at issue was the original content that the company was supposed to be providing as exclusive content. Instead, articles were then republished on multiple attorney websites that it is believed The Rainmaker Institute also worked on.

Many of the Scorpion sites I’ve converted also had lots of duplicate content, but once again what constituted duplicate content to Google back then is not what constitutes duplicate content now. The rules of engagement are constantly changing, even changing hourly in some cases.

A great observation by what I assume is another SEOer:

So what are you attorneys and law firms to do?

Answer is you do the best with what you’ve got at the time, and when the rules change, you change as quickly as you can. It’s not a static system. It is constantly in flux and so must your SEO best practices be constantly changing to meet the new guidelines; and whatever you feel you need to do to get your business on page one of the search results.

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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Best SEO Practices 2014

June 2, 2014 By Bobbie Grennier

Every business site needs a quality backlinking service because contrary to what Google tells you, backlinks are very much alive, well and very necessary.

Recommended by Google Local Pro for quality services and results.

Visit Rank Crew now and sign up for free because they will properly build your backlinks for you!

In a nutshell this video sums up what I would tell you with regard to this year’s big hoopla around backlinks and backlinking services. The real key to cracking the Google code lies in what constitutes a quality website in their eyes. This is where Google’s Page Rank (PR) algorithm kicks in. If a website has any PR at all, then it is showing signs of being considered good quality and relevant.

Of course Google doesn’t spider every web page. So, sites with higher quality and relevancy are going to have more of their content indexed by the search engine. And that’s what makes higher PR sites so valuable to those seeking high quality backlinks.

Rank Crew is one of the online businesses out there doing a quality job of getting you those relevant types of backlinks. They offer a variety of services for very reasonable prices. Membership is free and you can pick and chose how much you’d like to spend. Their best value is the Link Building for Established Sites, and that’s the one I recommend for my clients.

Watch the video and take notes. Lots and lots of notes! They put it all out there for you and don’t hold anything back. When you realize the sheer volume of work it takes to build quality backlinks, then you more deeply appreciate services like this one. Now, it’s time to learn something about back links in today’s search market. Enjoy!

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Sematic Search David Amerland

March 8, 2014 By Bobbie Grennier

It was really a cool geek moment for me to open up my Gmail and find that David Amerland, the author of Sematic Search, had posted to my G+ profile. I had posted in response to his article “Semantic Connections in Google Plus and your SEO” because I really feel that Google has become an emotional search engine of sorts.

If you’re totally and correctly hooked-up into the world of Google services and apps, then you’re going to get the full Google love when it comes to knowing exactly who you are and what you want in your online searches. Part of that scares me, and part of it excites me.

David however, lives on the cutting edge of Google’s future search capabilities, and it was an honor to receive a positive stroke back from him.

Sematic Search David Amerland and Me

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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Ethical Local SEO

January 26, 2014 By Bobbie Grennier

Ethical Local SEO services by Google Local Pro uses only white-hat ethical search engine optimization techniques.

Our Local SEO Marketing services are completely ethical and are designed to increase your website’s search engine positioning. The better we help you rank in the local search results, the more exposure your business gets, and that means better income potential for you.

Google Local Pro does not perform any activities that will get your site banned, penalized, or blacklisted on Google. That means no keyword stuffing, no doorway pages, no cloaking, no hidden text, no external landing pages, no link farms, no spammy backlinks or use of any of the other black-hat techniques.

Ethical Local SEO services by Google Local Pro are 100% beneficial to your website’s health and longevity.

SEO Code of Ethics

We religiously comply with Bruce Clay’s Code of Web Ethics:

Whereas all parties are working towards presenting relevant and high quality information in an easy to use format to information seekers, and whereas SEO practitioners are being contracted to assist clients in obtaining higher rankings for client pages, we (and those linking to this page) are voluntarily adhering to the below SEO Code of Ethics:

No SEO practitioner will intentionally do harm to a client. This involves the continued use of any technology or procedure (without appropriate care) that is known to result in having the client site removed from search engine indexes or directories, or rendered inoperative. Questionable adherence to standards must be addressed via the Robots Exclusion Standard.

No SEO practitioner will intentionally violate any specifically published and enforced rules of search engines or directories. Should rules and guidelines change (as they often do), the SEO practitioner will promptly take action to comply with the changes as they apply to all clients. Where rules and guidelines are unclear, the SEO practitioner will seek clarification and await approval from the appropriate search engine before continuing to utilize potentially harmful technology or procedures.

No SEO practitioner will intentionally mislead, harm, or offend a consumer. All individuals utilizing a search engine to visit a site will not be misled by the information presented to or by the search engine, or harmed or offended upon arrival at the client site. This includes techniques like “bait and switch” where the client page does not substantially contain and is not clearly associated with the optimized phrase, or may be reasonably offensive to targeted visitors.

No SEO practitioner will intentionally violate any laws. This involves the deliberate and continued violation of copyright, trademark, servicemark, or laws related to spamming as they may exist at the state, federal, or international level.

No SEO practitioner will falsely represent the content of the client site. This includes the practice of presenting different versions of web pages to different users except where that information is altered solely to meet browser specifications and needs, sensitivity to regional factors such as language, or product specific needs. In general, ALL requests for a specific URL should be served identical HTML by the web server.

No SEO practitioner will falsely represent others work as their own. This includes the taking of work from others in whole or in part and representing this work as their own. The SEO practitioner may not make verbatim copies of the work of others (instead of authoring original work) without the prior consent of the other party.

No SEO practitioner will misrepresent their own abilities, education, training, standards of performance, certifications, trade group affiliations, technical inventory, or experiences to others. This includes quantifiable statements related to project timetables, performance history, company resources (staff, equipment, and proprietary products), and client lists. Guarantees will be restricted to items over which the SEO practitioner has significant and reasonable control.

No SEO practitioner will participate in a conflict of interest without prior notice to all parties involved. This includes the practice of choosing to emphasize one client over another in competing keywords because there is more personal gain for the practitioner. All clients are treated equally and all will receive equal best effort in their Search Engine Optimization.

No SEO practitioner will set unreasonable client expectations. This includes the practice of accepting more than a reasonable number of clients competing for the same keywords and implying that all will be in the top positions in the search engines. This also includes the implication that results can be obtained in an unreasonable amount of time given the known condition of the search engines, client site, and competition.

All SEO practitioners will offer their clients both internal and external dispute resolution procedures. This includes the publishing of address and phone numbers on primary web pages, the inclusion of third-party dispute resolution links prominently placed within the practitioners web site, and contracts that include sections discussing dispute resolution.

All SEO practitioners will protect the confidentiality and anonymity of their clients with regards to privileged information and items implying testimonial support for the SEO practitioner. All staff of SEO practitioner shall be bound to protect information that is not generally known as it may harm the client. The SEO practitioner will not include the publishing of testimonials and proprietary logos of client lists, press releases, and other collateral discussing the client without explicit approvals.

All SEO practitioners will work to their best ability to increase or retain the rankings of client sites. Clients are contracting for fee with the SEO practitioner in order to obtain and retain search engine placement. The SEO practitioner is charged with an obligation to utilize appropriate and allowed technology and methodologies to improve and retain the rankings for their clients in the face of shifting search engine technology, competition, and client web site needs.

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

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Google Glass

November 26, 2013 By Bobbie Grennier

Oh wow, I just received an invitation from Google Glass to become an Explorer. Here’s a copy of the invite, but I blocked out a few private bits of information.

google glass invite

The offer expires in seven days. Oh why, oh why Google Glass right before Christmas? You know I want to be an Explorer, but what about the cost? How much is it?

google glass offer

Of course I clicked the “Get Glass” button. I had to know the price they were offering. I was hoping for beta tester pricing. Here’s what I got.

google glass

Google Glass: “What is that?” “What does it do?” “What do you see?”

Basically you see a small screen in the top corner with brief snippets of information. For me personally, that might be troublesome as my eye sight isn’t too good anymore for close vision. I need Google to get me some special lenses, maybe progressive in nature so that corner is a clean sharp image.

What you can do with Google Glass:

Take a picture
Record a video
Get Directions
Send a message
Do phone calls
Google+ Hangouts
Google search

Here’s an outstanding video review of Glass by Marques Brownlee covering frequently asked questions.

Google Glass also comes with a variety of accessories that of course you’d want to have to make the Glass experience the total package.

I won’t be jumping in just yet. The price point is pretty steep, a whopping $1,725 with all the accessories. Plus, my eye sight just won’t work well with these until they come with prescription lenses. I do think making videos with Glass will be awesome, but for now I just have to strap my GoPro to my head and look like the geek I am. (No pictures included)

google glass assessories

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Christmas came early for Google Places

November 26, 2013 By Bobbie Grennier

Today Google Places for Business rolled out a new Reviews feature in the new Google Places for Business dashboard. Now you can view what customers are saying about your business on Google and across the web in one place, your Places Dashboard.

This brings more engagement with Google’s services because the new dashboard also has Adwords easily accessible in the interface.

What’s most important to me was the change in wording from Google regarding allowing business owners to encourage their customers to write reviews. It was previously thought that if left alone customers would naturally write reviews. Well guess what, consumers only write reviews when they are unhappy. Very few customers engaged in positive review writing. And if businesses asked customers to write reviews if they’d like to, those businesses were in violation of Google’s policies.

Today, Google representative Jade Wang announced, “And if you feel your business deserves more good reviews, or if you are missing feedback on your work, all you need to do now is to encourage your customers to post reviews on your Google+ page.”

As long as the business doesn’t interfere with the review process, I’ve always felt business owners should be allowed to encourage reviews, and today Google granted that wish.

Google Places on G+

Read more about the changes on Google Places and the new Reviews interface on my G+ profile:

Wow, what a big day for all things Google!

Thanks for reading and sharing my blog posts.

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How to use Hashtags on Google+

October 25, 2013 By Bobbie Grennier

Google+ is evolving and one of the best features to emerge is the use of hashtags. The obvious question for someone new to hashtags is what are they?

Google defines hashtag as a word or a phrase (without spaces) preceded by the # symbol — for example, #Cooking – that helps people find and join conversations about a particular topic. If you click on a hashtag, it will show you the related content that others who have also used the hashtag. That makes it a great way to find content by topic. It’s also a great way to create a “buzz culture” #buzzculture about a topic you want other to talk about as well.

How to use Hashtags in your G+ Posts

Use hashtags by typing them somewhere within the text of your post. Here are some examples:

I just learned about these great #VeganCooking tips.
#Mondays are the worst. #SleepDeprived #SoMuchToDo but your #GoogleLocalPro is already hard at work.

Hashtags you use in your Google+ posts may also appear at the top of your post as related hashtags. You can use them in the post as well like I did above. A lot of people use them at the end of the post like they do on Twitter.

Related Hashtags

Hashtags appearing at the top of a post are related to the post’s content. Clicking on a hashtag will let you explore related posts.

Hashtags with gray coloring are those used by the author of the post while hashtags with blue coloring are added by Google based on the content of the post. Related hashtags help posts get discovered and build conversations around the content of that post.

That’s a brief overview of how to use hashtags on Google+. So, next time you log into your G+ account and post, make sure you add at least one hashtag to help others find your awesome posts.

Google Local Places SEO in New York City , New York

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Search Engine Optimization

March 4, 2013 By Bobbie Grennier

Search Engine Ranking – Optimization Strategy

Think of the Internet as the biggest library-like source of information in human history, with one major difference from a actual library. The Internet is not organized, nor is all the information out there credible. This is where search engines come into play and why SEO services, SEO ranking and SEO optimization strategies are so important to real businesses who provide real information, services and products.

Why You Need Good Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Strategy

How to Search Engine Optimization – SEO

We call it being in the Top 10 of a search engine. It means your web site is listed on the front page, in the first 10 results, of any given search engine listing for your keywords … and that’s referred to as a Natural Listing or Natural Results.

In reality, your web site coming up in the top 10 of any search engine is anything but natural. Appearing in the top 10 for your business’s keywords will bring in potential customers to your web site just as effectively as the businesses that pay for the Google Ads and Yahoo Ads, but it’s more cost effective to you because you didn’t have to pay $3-$20 per click like they did … and remember, clicks don’t mean sales, it just means someone clicked onto their web site. Also, I’m not inflating those prices … if you want to compete with the big boys at the top of the keyword list on Google, that’s what it’s going to cost you. Suddenly optimizing your web site has much more importance to you doesn’t it?!

Search engine ranking and optimization is a highly specialized field of Internet study combined with the ability to write decently. Search engine users are what we call a targeted audience because they come looking for your business and usually want to buy what you sell. You don’t need to do anything, but provide them a clean web site that nicely displays your products, and close the sale (but that’s another article).

Internet Users and Search Engine Search Listings

Every web business needs a web site marketing plan with a solid search engine ranking and optimization strategy. The Georgia Institute of Technology says more than 85% of all Internet users find new web sites through search engine search listings. Data shows that search engine listings are the number one way to generate traffic to a web site.

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Services

Think about it … when you got your very first computer, hooked it up and wanted to go out onto the world wide web … didn’t you ask yourself, How do I find web sites? Then you discovered what a search engine was and from there, you relied on the search engines to give you keyword results and that’s where you played on the Internet.

That’s what millions of users do everyday. These are people who are not tech savvy like you and me. They use search engines as a way of sifting through the myriad of web sites out there, narrowing their search and focusing them on the top 10 results. The goal of any SEO company is to get your web site to rank in the top 10 for your set of keywords, bringing you the people who are searching for the goods and services you provide.

Good Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Strategy

SEO services involve knowledge of SEO optimization, web site planning, SEO experience and having the right SEO tools, but most of all it requires patience because getting your web site into one of those top positions on the search engine results pages (SERP) takes an average of 1-3 months. Any SEO company will need to tweak your web site and it’s content, and then wait for the search engines to make their changes. The goal is to achieve and maintain true search engine optimization and placement for your web site.

By hiring an SEO company like us, to handle your search engine optimization you will see results. A good SEO company will bring you good search engine placement, and any business that can get the targeted traffic should also get the conversion necessary to drive profits up if the web site is able to close the sale.

Your web site content should both drive SEO optimized traffic to your web site and help close the sale. A good SEO Copywriter can help with both!

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization for Good ROI

ROI is the return on investment. You need to compare your ROI for the costs of placing pay per click ads (PPC) with Google and Yahoo vs. the cost of optimizing your web site to get a natural ranking.

How competitive is your market? If it’s highly competitive, like the Finance market is, then you’re most likely going to need to do both to make it in that business online. This is where where our SEO experience can be invaluable to you and the success of your online business.

Forrester Research reported that Over 80 percent of all Internet users reach sites through search engines. Translated, that means if your web site isn’t attracting 80 percent of its visitors from search engines, you’re losing out on a lot of free traffic.

A study from the NPD Group found that search engine listings are far more effective than standard banner or button advertisements when it comes to brand recall, favorable opinion rating, and conversion of traffic to sales.

In unaided recall, search listings outperformed banners and buttons by three to one. More than twice as many people gave a more favorable opinion of companies in the top three search positions than those featured in ads.
The study also found that 55 percent of online purchases were made on sites found through search listings, while a mere 9 percent were on sites found through banner ads. You do the math! Search Engine Optimization is clearly linked to a better ROI for your business.

Based on our own internal calculations, the current cost of getting customers through a good SEO optimization strategy is less than half of the cost of pay-per-click services such as Yahoo’s Overture or Google’s AdWords.

We also know that organic or natural traffic, that comes to your web site from natural search engine ranking, converts better than traffic delivered via pay-per-click search… because the traffic is better targeted! Not all, but most people don’t want to click on the Ads and prefer to click on the organic links instead.

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization

Search engine ranking and SEO optimization is cost effective and should be a high priority. While the search engine ranking and SEO optimization process is complex and time consuming, it is very do-able if you know what you’re doing. That’s why you may want to hire an SEO writer.

SEO optimization is not only about working your web pages to match the ever changing search engine algorithms of all the major search engines, but it’s also about trying to out-rank your competitors.

If you are new to SEO optimization and want to learn more, Google Local Pro has a lot of tutorials and articles regarding SEO.

Google Local Places SEO in New York City , New York

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Adwords Support

February 18, 2013 By Bobbie Grennier

Google Adwords Support Page

It’s one of the hardest pages to find on the internet, and yet one of most important to know about if you are using Google Adwords to advertise your business. I grabbed the page information for my clients to easily access any time they need it.

It is great to see Google making more of an effort to provide customer services and user relationships with their various businesses.

Google Adwords Support: “We’re here, and we’d love to help.”

The Google Ads Team is available now, and with five different ways to get answers, you can simply choose the best one for you. We’re here, and we’d love to help your business succeed with Google. Learn more about how to contact us for help with other Google products.

	Call Talk with the Google ads team from 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday at 1-866-2GOOGLE (1-866-246-6453).Calling from a different country? See our full list of phone numbers.
	Chat Get immediate help online during the business hours listed above. Live Googlers are standing by! Chat now.
	Email Fill out our contact form to email us with any questions you have about your advertising, and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours. Email us now.
	Ask experts Get advice from a community of business people who use AdWords everyday. It’s free, fast, and to the point. Ask now.
	Learn Use the Help Center to find answers quickly and explore new features at your own pace, whenever you want. Start learning.Popular topics: Find out if your ad is running Billing & Payments Ads & Approvals

Adwords Support from Google Local Pro in Santa Cruz, CA serving the Local Search SEO community in New York City , New York .

Google Local Places SEO in New York City , New York

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Santa Cruz Website Designer ~ Internet Marketing Service

Local Website Designer, Internet Marketing Services, Search Engine Optimization, Local SEO and Semantic Search Marketing with Bobbie Grennier

Google My Business for Places

Common questions about Google My Business.

What’s the difference between Google My Business, Google Places for Business, and Google+ Pages Dashboard?

How do I manage multiple business locations?

Questionable SEO Practices

So what are you attorneys and law firms to do?

Best SEO Practices 2014

Sematic Search David Amerland

Ethical Local SEO

SEO Code of Ethics

Google Glass

Google Glass: “What is that?” “What does it do?” “What do you see?”

What you can do with Google Glass:

Christmas came early for Google Places

Google Places on G+

How to use Hashtags on Google+

How to use Hashtags in your G+ Posts

Related Hashtags

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Ranking – Optimization Strategy

Why You Need Good Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Strategy

Internet Users and Search Engine Search Listings

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Services

Good Search Engine Ranking and Optimization Strategy

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization for Good ROI

Search Engine Ranking and Optimization

Adwords Support

Google Adwords Support Page

Google Adwords Support: “We’re here, and we’d love to help.”

Call me (831) 854-7447

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