Tag: local business

Google’s locksmith problem and the perils of crowdsourcing

Google’s continued disinterest in local search continues to hurt honest business and consumers

An ongoing frustrations of this blog is Google’s failure to execute in local business search despite the massive advantage it has in that field.

One notable aspect of Google’s failure is the locksmith problem where thousands of fake businesses have slipped into the company’s database. The result is thousands of consumers being ripped off and honest local businesses being overlooked in search results.

Spam in Google’s local business search is not a new problem, Search Engine Land reported it as being an ongoing issue in 2009 and the New York Times ran a feature on it two years later highlighting how genuine local businesses and consumers suffer.

Now, five years on, the New York Times has revisited the problem of Google business listings and finds the problem hasn’t changed a great deal with locksmiths and other local search engine results being hijacked by scammers filing false listings.

It’s hard not to conclude that the local listing service isn’t really a high priority to Google’s attention deficient managers and it isn’t surprising given maintaining databases is nowhere near as sexy as being involved in moonshots or as lucrative as the company’s core adwords business.

Google’s bureaucrats think so little of the service that they give the task of maintaining its integrity to an army of unpaid volunteers. The New York Times tells the tale of one of these ‘Mappers’, an unemployed truck driver named Dan Austin, who proved so good at the role he was ‘promoted’ – still unpaid of course – and then ‘sacked’ when he demonstrated how easy it was to plant a false listing.

That weakness in Google’s system shows how crowdsourced services can be subject to abuse and how volunteers themselves are abused by companies taking advantage of ‘free’ labour.

Another weakness illustrated in the Locksmith story is the collateral damage of the ‘fail-fast’ mentality where features are released without the developers really understanding the consequences. The cost of failure may be felt by innocent parties more than the company that’s ‘failed’, as Search Engine Land flagged in its 2009 article.

Google has continued to release features into local that are open to abuse. Google has used its release early and iterate tactic to gain market share at the expense of more circumspect competitors and on the fragile incomes of small businesses.

The continued failure of Google’s local business service remains frustrating for small businesses, having destroyed the Yellow Pages and local newspaper advertising models most neighbourhood services have few places to advertise. While Google and the other internet giants remain focused on other matters, local business search remains a great opportunity for a smart entrepreneur.

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Happy mobile new year

With the holiday season over, there’s a couple of things all businesses should be reviewing to make the most of the mobile marketplace.

It’s a bit late in the month for New Year’s resolutions but with the work year now fully underway it’s not too late to do a quick health check of your company’s mobile presence.

Two years ago we passed the point where smartphone sales overtook those of personal computers and increasingly customers are expecting not only to find a business on their phone but also be able to read the company’s website on a mobile.

So the new years resolutions are simple; look at your company’s website on some smartphones and check the listings in Facebook and Google My Business are correct.

The Facebook and Google listings are simple and if it turns out they are out of date or wrong can be quickly and easily fixed. These are probably two of the most cost effective marketing things you can do for your business.

Should the website look dreadful on a smartphone then things are bit trickier and you may have to contact your web designer to enable a responsive function on your site. Responsive design detects the device a visitor is using and adapts to suit. Some older sites and platforms don’t support this and if that’s the case you need to start planning and budgeting for a redesign immediately.

If the site is based on modern platforms like WordPress or Drupal there are plugins that will do most of the work automatically while services such as Blogger and Wix have responsive features built in, although you may have to tweak the site’s template to give prominence to important information on a smaller screen.

That important information includes contact details, address, opening hours and a concise description of your business, the quicker customers can find these, the more likely you’ll win them. If you’re in hospitality then linking your location to Google Maps will help guests find you.

While these three tasks are simple things, and by no means a full digital strategy, they are probably the quickest, easiest and cheapest things you can do to get in front of customers in an increasingly demanding and crowded market that expects to find you on their smartphones.

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Smartphone safety and online trust – ABC Nightlife technology

The July ABC Nightlife radio segment looks at how elusive the truth can be online along with smartphones and sight impaired tech.

Smartphones for the vision impaired, malware on portable devices and online trust were the topics of the July technology spot on  Tony Delroy’s Nightlife along with why a restaurant claims Google sent it broke and how we can’t always trust what we hear online.

If you missed the show, you can download the program from the website.

For sight impaired smartphone users both Doug and Nick called in to suggest Vision Australia’s services. The organisation has a page dedicated to smartphone and tablet resources.

Nick and Peter asked about malware protection for Android smartphones. Both Intel’s McAfee Mobile Security and Sophos’ Mobile Security for Android are free for home users.

The next spot is scheduled for 4 September, if you have any topics you’d like to discuss contact me or the Nightlife producers.

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Google merges business with social

What should businesses expect from Google Places being merged with the social Plus platform.

As of today, Google Places is now part of Google Plus with the old accounts being merged into the social media and identity service.

The effect of the merger means listings will now appear with the features of Google Plus added, for US based hospitality businesses, Zagats’ reviews are now also integrated into the results.

For business owners, there’s little change in the administration panel and it appears any accounts that are suspended because of Google’s obscure listing policies remain in limbo.

How the complexities of the Google Places policies mesh with the arcane and arbitrary rules applied to Google Plus identities will be an interesting thing to watch.

One area of concern is that the owner of a Google+ Local listing will need a personal profile – for businesses this means a nominated individual has to run the account. Should that individual leave the business, then there will problems with shifting ownership.

I have some questions in with Google’s PR folk about these aspects of the transition and hopefully we’ll get some more ideas on how to deal with these issues.

While this merger of the two services are to be expected, it’s going to be interesting to see how it evolves. Right now it appears Google have dropped the ball on local with their focus on social and identity management.

The identity management aspect of this integration is the key point as Google’s hope is that individuals will check into and rate businesses which in turn will give them a more complete picture of that person’s habits and preferences.

How that pans out depends on how individuals value their personal information, it may be that once people understand the value of this data they’ll demand more than just the warm feeling of sharing their meal review with a circle of their friends.

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Santa’s online business checklist

The run up to Christmas is a good time to make sure essential business information is online

Regardless of what sector your business is in, the web has become the way customers find us. Giving the key information shoppers are looking for is good start to getting their business.

An analysis by search engine giant Google of Australian consumers’ online Christmas shopping habits shows how the web is evolving as it becomes the main way customers discover businesses in the crowded marketplace.

Even if your business isn’t in retail, it’s worthwhile paying attention to the survey as a guide to what customers – both in the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) spaces – expect online.

Do you list opening hours?

Number one failure of many sites is they don’t list opening hours or hide them. Warehouses, distributors and suppliers are particularly bad for this and if you’re in retail it is the unforgivable sin.

Your operating hours have to be clearly shown on the front page and come up early on a mobile site, people don’t want to navigate ten menus, subscribe to your newsletter or, worst of all, have to call you to find out if you’re open Sundays or in the evening.

List shut down and public holiday hours

If you’re in an industry that shuts down during the Christmas break, make it clear when you won’t be available.

Sending out a terse email message at 10am on the day of the close down and putting a sticky taped note on the front door that your accounts, receiving or sales department will be shut for two weeks doesn’t help your business or your customers.

Where are your contact details?

Probably the most bizarre aspect of hospitality industry websites is how many bars and restaurants hide their location.

This is fine if you’re one of these Melbourne laneway hipster haunts where only the ‘in-crowd’ are welcome, but most businesses actually want customers to find them.

Have your address and a map on your site showing exactly where you are. If you are in hospitality or retails have a mobile version that shows this first so lost shoppers and taxi drivers can find you.

Are local listings up to date?

A lot of mobile phone applications get their data from services like Google Places and True Local so get your listing up to date with these services, making sure you have accurate Christmas trading hours and that their maps accurately show your location.

The good news for hard pressed retailers is the overseas online threat fades in December as foreign websites can’t guarantee delivery after the first week of the month and local web outlets drop out around the 16th.

If you want to grab those last minute shoppers – which includes most men – then you’re going to have to make sure they can find you when they pick up their smartphone or log into their computer.

As Telstra have found, people are no longer turning to the phone directory and calling you for information, they expect contact details and opening hours to be clearly on your web site.

The web is where our businesses have to be, so make sure you can be found there.

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Why online listings are an essential business tool

Online listings with the major search sites are free and effective. Even more importantly, those listings form the basis for many of the location based services that are springing up on Smart Phones. You need to list your business on these sites to make sure they are appearing in the searches customers increasingly rely upon.

Online listings with the major search sites are free and effective. Even more importantly, those listings form the basis for many of the location based services that are springing up on Smart Phones. This article originally appeared on the 19 January Smart Company Business Tech Talk column.

Since Global Positioning System (GPS) equipped smartphones arrived on the market, we’re seeing all kinds of location based phone applications springing up.

Recently I’ve been playing with two of these services – Foursquare and Urban Spoon to find there are some lessons for businesses in how these products work.

These services are terrific at telling you where the nearest cafes, service stations or places of interest are, although at the same time I’ve noticed how inaccurate some of the business locations can be.

Often, particularly in the case of Foursquare, the wrong spot has found its way into the system because customers have taken a guess at the address, added the details while on the way to or from the business or just simply got the location wrong. Which can be awkward, particularly if your competitors are closer to the incorrect location.

So it’s worthwhile getting your businesses address correct on these services. Fortunately, it isn’t as hard as having to track down every single one of these new services and spend hours plugging your details into them.

The most important single service is the Google Local Business Centre, as many of these location based services use Google Maps. Every business should be on this already as the listing is free and the information also feeds into Google search results. If your organisation is correctly listed here, it will appear in all Google searches for your product in your neighbourhood.

Microsoft are in this market too with their Local Listing service which feeds into Bing results in a similar way to Google’s service. Like Google Maps, it’s free and listing only takes a few minutes.

The traditional advertising medium for most Australian small businesses has been in the Yellow Pages. Sensis also offer a free listing which will get you in their maps and directories (although to get a priority listing you’ll need to pay more).

So check your details are correct on all these services, it only takes a few minutes and given most customers, particularly in the business-to-business markets, use the web to research potential suppliers you’ll probably pick up a few customers just by having the right details online.

With mobile internet usage expected to overtake desktop surfing in the next few years, it’s critical your details are correct on these phone applications which customers are going to increasingly rely upon.

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