A few minutes ago I noticed the new Google+ page for Google Maps. And I believe this is how a Google+ business page would look like:
I, of course, clicked on the “Create a Google+ page” button and here is what I see (I moved the pop up window):
This all means that we are pretty near to seeing the long anticipated Google+ Business Pages!
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LOL, You just couldn’t help yourself could you?
It’s getting very exciting
Not as good as I expected, Jo
First impressions? Well having now created my Business Page, I was mustering the words “Is that it?”. My only hope is that Google have launched what is the back bone to the Google+ Pages and will be adding the “Meat” later!
I want to see integrated Places & Pages more than anything else, but at the moment it looks like Google+ is just another place to stop by for local businesses.
Gav, I think we will see this integration very soon. However, I think it is rather disappointing that after such long waiting Google are offering us “this”…
What are your thoughts on the splintering of resources between FB pages and Google+ pages? That is, would businesses actually benefit by having 2 competing social media sites promote what they’re selling? Or does this simply generate more confusion from a client perspective?
Honestly, I see little from the FB page from a business perspective save for the SEO value. From a business perspective, unless the FB page has valuable-actionable-items, it does little more than provide annoying alerts to followers who over time will stop listening.
Thomas, I’m generally not a big fan of Facebook. I suppose Google+ pages will have some value in the organic rankings though, so even as they are currently not much more than re-designed Facebook Pages, it would still be important to have one. I am sure Google will keep working on improving them too.
IMHO, the really interesting thing will be to see whether/how Google tries to pitch G+ pages to business owners. Many of them still don’t know much about Places, to the extent they even know about it at all.
And, as someone who started using Facebook back in 2006–well before everyone and his grandmother had one–I can say that it took a *really* long time for business owners even to dip their toes into it. So, I think the other interesting thing will be to see how Google grows its +Pages slowly but surely, so that it will eventually be in a position to call itself an alternative to Facebook.
In any case, I totally agree with Thomas: Facebook doesn’t do much in the way of monetization for the majority of business owners, which I think poses a dual challenge to Plus: Google has to position it as similar to Facebook so that people can realize what it even is, and at the same time has to position Plus as significantly different from and better than Facebook, lest business owners just write it off as the latest knick-knack.
Perfectly true, Phil. I am also interested to see if Google could succeed in the social sphere where Facebook couldn’t (and still cannot). A decent alternative would be a good start. They still have a long way to go.
So between Google + Business Pages, Yahoo Local, Facebook Local, citysearch,yelp, and say a judysbook
you now have to figure out how to interlink them and get the NAP citations.
Great blog, Mean it.
Scott
Yep, life of an SMB has never been more complicated
That’s why people like us are doing business, no?
Thanks for the nice words, Scott!
@all – thanks for the comments, guys! I really did not expect so many of you would come and share thoughts. I am still to see the real benefits and advantages of a Google+ business page.
By the way, I was probably one of the very first ones to create such a page. We are planning a hangout for the end of this month, so if some of you has any suggestions, please, share them here or send us an email
Thank you once again!
A user is complaining in the Help Forum that a new Google Places search results algorithm is killing his business.
Should Google roll out new algorithms as options for at least a month or a few weeks plus the current Places update cycle to give everyone a fair chance of appearing equitably in the new algorithms results?
Cheers. Andrew.
Andrew,
Thank you for the comment. Unfortunately, I believe the problem with the irregular/slow updates is rather technical. I can imagine what quantity of data that is. So I suppose simply processing it takes at least a few days. I really hope Google would find a faster way though. I have heard that in the beginning their organic search results were being updated at similar pace. They obviously found the correct one
Fingers crossed the same will happen with Places too.
In the event he had internal Places issues so not as he thought due to a Places update.