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You are here: Home / Google / Google Places Gets A Long Awaited Make-Over (Hurrah!)

Google Places Gets A Long Awaited Make-Over (Hurrah!)

April 4, 2013 by Jan Kearney

I’ve been dying to get to this since last night when I saw the Google blog announcement fly through my feed.

Google Places is having a makeover.  Its new improved dashboard is rolling out now in the US and will eventually go international.  We’re told to sit tight.

What’s new in Google Places for Business?

Google Places for business new dashboardOther than the swish new at-a-glance dashboard, Google Places will seamlessly integrate with Google Plus business pages (the social pages) using the option in the Places dashboard.  This alone will stop some confusion.

Perhaps most exciting for me is that service area businesses are supported – that is brilliant news! 

You’ll also be notified of edit status, it shows as pending rather than you sitting there waiting for weeks wondering what’s happening with no updates.

On the downside, the speculated change to categories has been implemented.  There are no more custom categories.

More Information

Both Linda Buquet and Mike Blumenthal have test accounts and go into the changes in far more detail with screenshots.  There’s also some FAQ over on the Google and Your Business forum.

I’ll be updating my free guide for my mailing list over the next day or so.  My lovely business coach, Sharon has agreed to be a guinea pig.  As soon as the new Places dashboard rolls out over here I’ll set up her listing and video it to add to the free guide.

If you want the updated guide and the video when they’re available you need to be on the list.  Simply pop your name and email in the box below.

Over to you…

I can hardly contain my excitement that Google Places is finally heading in the right direction – do you share my feelings, or are you rolling your eyes at yet another change online?

Google Places Gets A Long Awaited Make-Over (Hurrah!) by Jan Kearney
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Filed Under: Google, Google Plus, local business internet marketing Tagged With: google local business, google places, google places changes, Google Plus

About Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest

Comments

  1. Toni Nelson says

    April 4, 2013 at 1:54 am

    I love what Google is doing. There’s so much talk about Google Reader being retired but businesses should focus on developments like these.

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 4, 2013 at 4:17 pm

      I’m still sulking about Google Reader, Toni lol This change to Places has been a long time coming!

  2. Bonnie Gean says

    April 4, 2013 at 7:07 pm

    Does this mean my service business (based solely on the Internet) will finally have a reason to call Google Places my home?

    Please say yes. LOL

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 5, 2013 at 4:05 am

      I’d love to say yes, Bonnie. It’s a no though. Internet only businesses don’t qualify for a local listing. 🙁

  3. Bonnie Gean says

    April 4, 2013 at 10:03 pm

    I LOVE LOVE Pixabay… that’s where I get most of my images, but I’ve started to use MorgueFile.com as well.

    Thanks for the resources! I’ll be sure to check them out as well. Can’t have too many resources ya know! 🙂

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 5, 2013 at 4:04 am

      Lol Bonnie – I think this comment belongs on the next post. Yes, I love Pixabay too. Every Stock Photo searches MorgueFile as well as several other sites.

      • Bonnie Gean says

        April 6, 2013 at 6:58 am

        Oh my, egg on my face so soon? LMAO

        Well, that will teach me to have 2 windows opened on the same blog! Trying to burn the candles at both ends and I ended up burning the objective! 🙂

        • Jan Kearney says

          April 6, 2013 at 4:03 pm

          Then SLOW DOWN! You are allowed a break sometimes, Bonnie 🙂

  4. Debra Moser says

    April 7, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    Hi Jan, great post! What do you mean by ‘service area businesses are supported’?

    • Jan Kearney says

      April 7, 2013 at 7:29 pm

      Hi Debra, right now service businesses that visit clients at their location cannot have a merged social G+ Page -That’s Places and Google plus local business page merged for the full social experience. We were told to delete our merged pages as they were not supported as G+ social pages do not support hidden addresses, a requirement of the guidelines for service businesses.
      The new Google Places dashboard (G+ Local) now means service area businesses can merge the Places and the Google Plus business page for a full social business Page because they do hidden addresses (i.e the rules) are now catered for.

      Probably confused you more with that answer – but it’s enough to know they’ve fixed what has been broken and causing no end of issues for many many months. Now just waiting for it to roll out!

Meet Jan Kearney

I believe that every business, no matter how small or how local can use the power of the web to gain more customers. I offer no bull coaching and mentoring so small business owners can strategically put the web to work for their business. I've been called a "compass" and a "navigator" and probably a few more names that aren't suitable for a profile!
Connect with me on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest or Discover More About My Local Business Online…

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