SEO for Google Places
Google.com has started to let businesses respond to user reviews on the Google Places/Local Business Centre/Maps/whatever they’re calling it nowadays section.
They even offer advice as to how to respond to complaints, here’s the link.
Useful for maintaining customer service and relations as well as allowing businesses to respond to especially harsh or undeserved criticism.
It’s only a matter of time before this is added to Google.co.uk.
This isn’t going to change SEO but responding or monitoring the reviews may become a task for some SEO companies. Or it may make filling in the listings accurately an absolute necessity otherwise customers may pick up on any mistakes and have the perfect place to vent their disappointment/frustration or it may hamper the position of the business in the listings.
It will be interesting to see if Google will take anything from a company’s response, so if a company consistently answers its customers will Google give it a higher position on the map listings?
Google Maps, in my opinion, can be a great tool for SEO and your business but I find that the location takes precedence in your search. If you’re searching for a shop or a business that is static then it can be really useful, but if you’re searching for someone who covers an area or region it can’t give you all the options. So if you search for electricians Leicester you see all the electricians who have listed their address as Leicester, even though electricians, plumbers, builders and other services are provided across counties and regions.
I know Google Places lets you add a service area now to your listing but the map/search function doesn’t appear to have caught on.
Maybe Google will (or should) create a league style ranking system for businesses on the Local Business Centre where regions covered is accounted for and acknowledged, and also how positive the reviews are.
