How Google Local Works

Ever wonder where this whole Google Local thing came from and how it’s changed over time? Yes? Well then you’re in luck! We have Mike Blumenthal (aka Professor Maps) from Get 5 Stars here to give you the rundown.

Brief History

Understanding how Google Local works is important. There's a lot of misunderstanding about how they assemble and display a record. If you misunderstand this, you end up focusing on the wrong things.

Google Local has gone through a lot of iterations. Starting off as Google Maps, it eventually switched to Google Places and then Google Plus Local. Recently they removed all the names, focusing on the moniker Google Local, which really is a better reflection of what it is to real people

Google comes from a web background where they scrape the web, and Local evolved from that. They look far and wide to find information about a business and then assemble the information they find into a record.

The Wonder Years

Prior to 2012, Google would take these data sources - from your Dashboard, Google Map Maker, third-party sources and web citation data - and they would assemble it into what was known as a cluster. They would then literally rebuild the listing every six weeks from the ground up. This led to a lot of problems, because listings would get merged and/or they'd get split.

One of the interesting artifacts of this era was that if you had a listing claimed in one Dashboard, it could be claimed in a second Dashboard or in the bulk upload product. You could literally have three or four people controlling or inputting data into one Google Local Listing. You can imagine and have probably experienced some of the problems because of this.

New Data Pipelines

In early 2012, Google moved Local into the Knowledge Graph. They essentially created a canonical database record for Local listings. This became an entity that Google trusted and that retained its identity. In other words, it wasn't rebuilt every six weeks. The data from their third-party sources, web citation, and the old Dashboard still flowed into this record but the also started building new data pipelines and new interfaces so that users could add data to this listing.

Map Maker was the first one to come out and in June of that year (2012), they introduced Google Plus Local that provided another interface to move data into this canonical record. Late last year they introduced the Places for Business Dashboard. These new user interfaces essentially allow a user to give data to Google. With these new pipelines, data can now get to them very quickly, sometimes in as little as a few minutes.

The New World Order

At some point in the future, Google will converge these interfaces into a single product. We’re actually starting to see the beginnings of that process now in the shared data pipelines these all use. So a change you make at Google+ or a change you make in the Dashboard are going to get to the same place in the same time.

As part of this strategy, Google changed the rules on how you can claim a listing. Now if you've claimed it in Google+ or Google Dashboard, you can't claim it in another Dashboard. They will prevent you from doing so. The problem is that if there is a listing in the old Dashboard, it can still influence and move data into the canonical listing.

Resistance is Futile

Google assembles listing data and then assesses it. They trust certain sources more than others. For example, they’ll generally trust the business as the primary source. But, you’re still just one source for them. This is one of the reasons that you see your listing data change, they may have data that they believe is more trustworthy than yours. The takeaway? You don't control your Local Listing.

Google will keep this information over time too. They probably have a better record of your business history than anybody in the world, and because of this, you’ll sometimes see your old data surface. Like last week for example, with the rollout of Hummingbird, we were seeing old records showing up again.

Platform Agnosticism for Data Collection

So what does Google do with this data? They syndicate it to their other products. Most people are familiar with the view of the Local data through the desktop, but Google syndicates Local data - it's considered an incredibly important data resource - to virtually every piece of hardware they can and to every piece of software.

They're relatively agnostic in this regard. They don't care where the data goes, and in each of these environments, they're going to show the data as they see fit. Most people will focus on what they think of as their page, the (soon to be called) Google Places page. When you look at these pages, you can get a sense of where they are in this process, whether they're claimed or not.

The Process

The basic page is an unclaimed Google+ page that you can tell is unclaimed. It has two tabs at the top, no quote or description from the owner, and sometimes it has photos that Google has scraped from the web.

The other type of page you'll see is a page that's been claimed, either in the old Dashboard or perhaps in the new Dashboard. It also has two tabs at the top. But unlike the previous page, this one has been claimed. The page has a quote from the business owner. If it's in the old Dashboard, it is always less than 200 characters.

The newer types of additional information on these pages will show they're claimed in the new Dashboard, upgraded to social, or they're claimed in Google+. They might have two tabs if the business doesn't have any videos out there or doesn’t have any social postings. The description could be less than 200, but usually it's more. The distinguishing factor is the verified symbol, which just means that this business has been verified and is able to add social content to Google.

Finally, you have the full-blown Google Plus page, which has been upgraded to social. It's got four tabs. They have a social stream, a video stream, and they have a longer description. But from Google's point of view, all these pages are one representation, just in different states of interaction with a business owner.

The Knowledge Graph

Google will show this data in any product that they are bringing out. But what you have to realize is that very few people ever leave Google's main SERP page. Virtually nobody makes it to your Google+ page.

Because of that, the SERP page is probably the page you should be worrying about. When Google surfaces a general search result or a branded search result, they show the Knowledge Panel on the right side. Google obviously thinks this page is important. They show it a lot. It’s probably seen a thousand times more than your Google+ page.

This section shows a lot of data, including Reviews - which Google obviously thinks is important since they show the word on the order of six times, ratings, social sharing and photos of your business. These are things that you can have some impact over and that Google thinks are important.

They will also show an interior street view. So if you're in a business that where the beauty of your facility is important – i.e. hotels and restaurants - you may want to think about adding a picture. This is effectively your landing page is the page you should be focused on.

Whether that information is represented in a traditional search result or in the new carousel, the outcome is the same. This is where people will see your local content. This is your landing page.

So when you are updating this page, you want to think about picking and cropping your photos carefully. You want to think about upgrading to the interior street view using Google business photos. You might even want to think about adding an ad on your brand, so that if you're in the carousel when people select it, your ad will show up as opposed to a competitors’ ad.

Reviews are also taking on an increasing visual importance. Having 5 stars on Google and having reviews from multiple locations so that people can see you're reviewed across the web, all add to the visual appeal of that page. Rather than search engine optimization, what you're doing is doing conversion optimization. You're trying to optimize this page so that users see your best foot forward.

Not Your Mom’s Yellow Pages

The other dirty little secret that Google has in this regard is that you don't control a listing. You are just one data source for their local data syndication system. So the Google+ page should be de-emphasized in your focus. Think about your relationship to Google, put your energy into that main page that you see.

It's not your mother using Yellow Pages. It's a local data syndication system, and you need to understand that so you put your energies where they belong.