The following post is from Mike Faley, TIG Global Web Marketing Analyst.
Look, I get it. Managing your online presence is a pain in the butt. Just five or ten years ago, your company reputation was managed almost entirely by you. These days, you’ve got your property review websites (Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google Places), social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter), and it seems like every other week there is a new channel to manage. Google Plus what? Pinterest who? What’s a “Path”? Who is “Foursquare”?
The bad news: these aren’t going anywhere. The good news: I can point you in the direction of the next big thing: Google Places.
I know what you’re thinking: Google Places has been around for years. The little Google Car drives around, takes pictures, people type in your address and your property comes up. Right? Wrong. Did you know users can submit reviews on Google Places listings? Oh, you did? And you say no one cares because no one uses Google Places? Oh how wrong you are.
Over the last year, Google has been making a united-front effort to weave their search and web app presence into one cohesive experience and Google Places is the warm gooey center of local search. In Google’s world, you’ll start – and finish – the research process for booking your next flight, hotel stay, or event, without leaving Google. Go on, give it a whirl: type “hotel las vegas” into Google and see what you find at the top.
Is it the natural search ranking your SEO efforts have been going towards for the last twelve months? Or the PPC ads you are paying top dollar for? No – prime real estate for terms such as these go to a “comparison ad”, sponsored by Google, which is a one-way ticket to Hotel Finder: Google’s answer to online review portals. And guess what sits front-and-center of Hotel Finder? You guessed it – Places reviews. And there isn’t a CPC high enough to combat that. If Google’s vision of property research comes to fruition, your search marketing efforts will have three main tiers: SEO, PPC and Places optimization.
Google is still fleshing out this vision and that is where an opportunity presents itself. Most properties I manage have between one and fifteen Places reviews. Independent of the quality of the property, most of the reviews are negative. This is to be expected: a ticked-off consumer will stop at no lengths to complain to anyone who will listen. Satisfied customers will stop by one website, click five stars and move on. It’s time to start doubling down on Places optimization, and that means optimizing the current listing, responding to as many reviews as possible (positive AND negative), and any on-site efforts to promote reviews on Trip Advisor should be doubled for Google Places.
As of now, Hotel Finder gets its information exclusively from Google Places, which means that is the only say a property has over its reputation. Assuming Google eventually puts its weight behind Hotel Finder (and integrates flight search, Plus, Offers, etc.), having an optimized Places listing with a foundation of positive reviews will put front-and-center to users utilizing these new channels.
Interested in ramping up your online strategy? Check out the full suite of TIG Global interactive marketing tools, send us an email, or give us a call +1 301.841.4700(US) | +44 (0)20 3004 9468(UK).
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I have to agree with you here. Google Places can really be beneficial for your SEO efforts, especially if you want to be on top of the search results in your area. Of course, you would want to reach a lot of people, or who they call the “general public,” but that’s going to take time, especially if you still have to build a reputation to get noticed. For instance, you would want to resell SEO services. If you already have a good reputation, good reviews on how you do business, and things along that line, it’s cool to target the “general public.” If you’re just starting, wouldn’t it be better to reach out to the locals first?
Thank you for additional ammunition for advising my tourism constituents that they better be paying attention to Google Places. I was reminding them that there is nothing more frustrating for a visitor or a potential client than not being able to find them and this is just icing on the cake. I’ll be linking back to this article for them. Thanks
@Floyd — I agree 100%. Places is a great way to scale reputation management. Working locally is important — and depending on your market and goals, imperative — but if Google’s dream is realized, even local interests will be funneled into one central location.
@Karen — Glad I could help! Google is going to continue putting their Places efforts front-and-center (like it or not). Getting these affairs in order is going to be integral to making sure potential clients/visitors/whoever are able to find the destination and gather correct, verified information.