Here is the much requested Q & A from the Inside Local Google Pigeon Webinar.
It's so long I had to do a separate post. I stripped out hundreds of email addresses and tried to strip out most of the comments that were just about sound quality or whatever.
Colan and I were responsible for all the A: answers, but the file does not indicate which of us was answering and sometimes we both were typing at same time so there are double answers. So if you need further clarification on one of our answers, please ask in the main thread linked above.
Can't spend any more time on this, so the formatting is not ideal, but it's readable.
Q & A CHAT LOG
Audience Question:
Q: will a recording of this be available?[Lee Abrahamson]
A: Yes will be recorded. Replay will be up in a few days here: InsideLocal: Expert Local Search Webinar Series | BrightLocal and here: InsideLocal Webinars
Q: Love polls![Theresa Wagar]
Audience Question:
Q: if you select hide webcams ant then show webcams from the webcam menu it will populate the four speakers' webcams.[Morgan Erickson]
A: Thanks Morgan
Audience Question:
Q: can i invite another person right now?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Sure we have a couple seats
Audience Question:
Q: Do I send my question in this chat?[Faiz Merchant]
A: Yes sir
Q: need their email?[oron rosenkrantz]
Audience Question:
Q: Do I send my question in this chat?[Faiz Merchant]
A: You can or if complicated can post in the forum after- Forum QA here: Deep Impact of the Pigeon Update: Free Webinar w/ Blumenthal, Shotland, Hawkins
Audience Question:
Q: Do I send my question in this chat?[Faiz Merchant]
A: or yu can post questins here - Webinar QA thread and recording will be posted at - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: meena.bahadur.01@gmail.com (to add to this webinar)[oron rosenkrantz]
Q: Will Matt Cutts ever Return?[Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: I cant hear any audio[Daniel McBride]
A: Can you double check your mute options Dan?
Audience Question:
Q: Congrats Linda!![Rachel Rossicone]
A: Thanks Rachel - excited. #7 for me!
Q: lost the webcast once the poll came up, is that normal?[christopher szalkowski]
Q: The panelists appeared![Craig Backus]
Q: i can now see the people[Mike Siegel]
Audience Question:
Q: Not sure what "Pigeon" is, so I'm hoping to learn more today.[Craig Backus]
A: It was algorithm update that started on July 27
Audience Question:
Q: Can you guys talk about the benefits of the Google 360 Business View Tour?[Matt Maglodi]
A: That's off topic for this one. The benefits are huge though. This one is jam packed but only about Pigeon
Audience Question:
Q: please define pack, PAC?[Chad Chapman]
A: This is the local results that Google displays with the pinned rsults A, B, C
Audience Question:
Q: please define pack, PAC?[Chad Chapman]
A: 7 pack. or 3 pack the local pinned results
Q: Just look up San Jose Plumbing for super spammy sites :([Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: I have 2 Google Plus sites, both of which are 2 diferrent companies but the same address. Will this affect my seacrh results?[Peter Ray]
A: Depends on some of the finer details. Post this q with details over here - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: how do you report a listing?[Faiz Merchant]
Audience Question:
Q: When he says a decrease in radius, does he mean from the location of searcher to business address? So more likely to find "closer" business than normal?[Irvin Politte]
A: It's all mixed up. Depends on search. Sometimes the radius is even wider and shows other cities. Pigeon makes no sense sometimes.
Audience Question:
Q: This is the start of the new local lottery aspect of search results!![Mark Bossert]
A: Local Lottery. Love it. Random rotation!
Q: What is your advice to help you rank for areas where you do not have a physical location? For Example a Plumber located in Essex that works throughout London but does not have a premises there?[Kieran Headley]
A: Optimized location pages on website.
Audience Question:
Q: great slides Joy, what was the search term?[dave oremland]
A: personal training katy tx
Audience Question:
Q: great slides Joy, what was the search term?[dave oremland]
A: We discussed in the Pro G+ Group. Think it was personal training Katy Tx.
Audience Question:
Q: what types of businesses does google consider more spam prone?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: A lot of SAB's, locksmiths, plumbers...
Audience Question:
Q: how do you guys define spam results? is this sites like elocal listings?[David deLeon]
A: I define spam as guideline violations and KW spam
Q: It is all about the one month rev loss of 18%[David Freid]
Audience Question:
Q: how do you guys define spam results? is this sites like elocal listings?[David deLeon]
A: Listings that use fake addresses or keyword stuffed titles would be an example
Q: Wow Thanks Mike for speaking the truth about the intent for Pigeon![Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: Is there any connection or correlation between Pigeon and Penguin? ie if a site is getting hit by Penguin, will Pigeon come into play for local results?[Chris Ratchford]
A: From what I see Pigeon does not mind Penguin. Can still rank in pack even if hit by Penguin
Audience Question:
Q: We have 4 virtual locations now in the PAC. Google wants us to eliminate those not "staffed". What is the minimum number of hours weekly that we have to "staff" the office? Google is vague. What's your best guess?[Lee Abrahamson]
A: They have to be staffed during the stated hours on the Google+ Local page
Audience Question:
Q: We have 4 virtual locations now in the PAC. Google wants us to eliminate those not "staffed". What is the minimum number of hours weekly that we have to "staff" the office? Google is vague. What's your best guess?[Lee Abrahamson]
A: Not sure if I ever heard of a minimum nimber of hours, as long as it's actually staffed by the actual business employees.
Audience Question:
Q: I work with apartment complexes and the packs have all disappeared in this market. Do you think there is a chance they could return?[Richard Ingersoll]
A: Lots of real estate packs are gone too
Q: Mike when you talk about brand, how important do you think brand microdata is on a site?[Matt Smith]
Audience Question:
Q: How does software that measure RANK analyze these random changes to local?[Theresa Wagar]
A: It's tricky. I know that Myles and the team have been working hard to stay ahead aof the changes. Not an easy task.
Audience Question:
Q: How does software that measure RANK analyze these random changes to local?[Theresa Wagar]
A: Many of the rank tracking programs are borked due to Pigeon since it's on a different datacenter. Have BIG post at the forum about it.
Q: myles mic has a log of echo[Brian Childers]
Audience Question:
Q: have you noticed a correlation between using adwords and local listings. I noticed that my local listing jumped to #1 in results when i started an adwords campaign[oron rosenkrantz]
A: There shouldn't be any cause and effect between the two of them.
Q: for an local insurance agency - what is better? using the url and the page that the national company has created on their domain - very high authority or the agency web's own domain?[Chris Petracco]
Audience Question:
Q: The issue I am facing is that my business name does not include my primary service in the name. Therefore, majority of my backlinks that use my business name as the anchor tag do not include my primary service in the tag. I have noticed that when I run searches in maps for my service i.e. "physiotherapy toronto", all of my competitors come up that have included physiotherapy within their business name. I have considered rebranding to help with my organic rankings for this service. Is this a good approach? What should I do to ensure renaming my business does not affect my organic and local rankings.[Faiz Merchant]
A: Faiz, that's a long one to tackle here. Can you post that over here - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: On the subject of brand, is there a noticialbe difference in the way Google ranks national brands with retail locations versus local brands?[Benjamin Hong]
Q: would you say exact match domains are a strong factor in local search results? keyword/trade+city.com[David deLeon]
Audience Question:
Q: website page or GMB page?[andrew leonard]
A: GMB Page age
Q: thx[andrew leonard]
Q: Mike's mic is cleared up now[Steve Hubbard]
Q: Has google changed their spam review process? and if so how? different departments? etc?[oron rosenkrantz]
Audience Question:
Q: Local citations vs. backlinks: Which is more important? [Robin Mordini]
A: It depends on what you are comparing. Links are important for Organic and Citations for Local
Audience Question:
Q: Did Pigeon affect different areas differently, for example USA vs Canada vs Australia?[Robert Reynolds]
A: Pigeon is ONLY US so far.
Audience Question:
Q: Did Pigeon affect different areas differently, for example USA vs Canada vs Australia?[Robert Reynolds]
A: Yes it did. WE are in Canada and Pigeon hasn't even hit Canada as far as we can tell.
Audience Question:
Q: Emd's are just everwhere now[Matt Maglodi]
A: Yes EMDs and PMDs are loved by Pigeon - even more than before.
Audience Question:
Q: crud, I'm gettin gno audio, will a replay be avilable?[Brian Foy]
A: Recording will be available here - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: thanks[Brian Foy]
Audience Question:
Q: lol I have a client that has a UPS Store box he rents to claim the address in Atlanta. SO scared he will get busted[Daniel Motes]
A: Bad idea!
Audience Question:
Q: lol I have a client that has a UPS Store box he rents to claim the address in Atlanta. SO scared he will get busted[Daniel Motes]
A: I would not even try it.
Audience Question:
Q: Has Pigeon fully hit the UK yet?[Kieran Headley]
A: Nope
Q: andrew, pls repeat what you did with the #1 ranking.[Roy Mendoza]
Audience Question:
Q: Has Pigeon fully hit the UK yet?[Kieran Headley]
A: Just US
Q: He has had it for 3 years and dominates ATlanta still. I keep warning him that Google will eventually catch on[Daniel Motes]
Q: how are local businesses meant to compete in big areas such as london?[Piperis Filippaios]
Audience Question:
Q: In terms of Pigeon, are there any negative factors for businesses- ie dental- that have multiple G Local listings?[Chris Ratchford]
A: Pigeon does not seem to mind dupes as much as previous algo. BUT she's switching out Dr listings more often in the pack.
Audience Question:
Q: how were you able to get the local listing up in the first place if it's spam?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: There are several tactics. Fake phone numbers...etc
Audience Question:
Q: what are EMD's and PMDS'[Sean Clark]
A: exact match domain, partial....
Audience Question:
Q: what are EMD's and PMDS'[Sean Clark]
A: Exact match domain or business name OR partial match to the query
Audience Question:
Q: some of my clients have up to 200 more citations than the competition but are still getting outranked locally. suggestions?[Charles Taylor]
A: Citations are just one piece of the puzzle Charles
Audience Question:
Q: some of my clients have up to 200 more citations than the competition but are still getting outranked locally. suggestions?[Charles Taylor]
A: It's more about organic now - so beef that part up
Q: For citations and local links (yellow page/business listngs), has this been impacted by Penguin and seen as low value links?[Tim Soltysiak]
Audience Question:
Q: Can you explain more of what is in the pigeon update? When did it come into effect?[sue White]
A: July 27 ish
Q: can you discuss the tactics more, i'm experiencing a lot of spammy results for my customers. i'd like to send google some info on how to report them as spam[oron rosenkrantz]
Audience Question:
Q: Where can we see results for the polls?[Andrew Greenhalgh]
A: We'll publish later at the forum and Brightlocal
Audience Question:
Q: is having exact match domains and google plus pages good or bad with the new update[Derrick O'Keefe]
A: Google loves them more than ever. BUT would not change name just to rank in Pigeon cuz could change.
Audience Question:
Q: What strategy do you recommend to implement due to the Pigeon rollout?[Mary Grace Donaldson]
A: Depends on how it affected you. If it caused you to have no pack results, you may want to fouc soem efforts on optimizing other sites such as Yelp
Q: Speakes working cannot hear anyone[Owen Kane]
Audience Question:
Q: Are we going to be talking about service area businesses?[Kelsey Johnson]
A: May touch on but this one is mainly Pigeon.
Audience Question:
Q: I have a client that isn't on maps for a city in their service area, and the search term that is there category. So, it would be like searching for "dry cleaner dallas" and they aren't showing up at all. Any ideas?[Colby Howell]
A: For troubleshooting, please post over at the Local Searc forum - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: Mark is hell on my ADD[k hopp]
Audience Question:
Q: What are pack results?[Mary Grace Donaldson]
A: The local results - the topic of this webinar.
Audience Question:
Q: Is there a way to optimize the listing for a custom category? I know that we used to be able to through Map Maker, but since August it hasn't been available.[Andrew Mendel]
A: Custom cats are AWOL. You can optimize your website and citations for those cats
Q: We are multi location SAB company, we lost huge swaths of listings but most were instantly returned once we figured out the duplicate map listings were automatically duplicated and needed to be deleted. Was this seen across other types of businesses or just us?[Robert Reynolds]
Audience Question:
Q: So you take the old closed listing and report a problem to get the relocation message?[Charles Kim]
A: Yes
Q: Can you be more specific about "organic seo"? Organic is used mostly for explaining ranks rather than strategy. Thanks[k hopp]
Audience Question:
Q: What is the best way to change an address?[Chris Agro]
A: Update in GMB Dashboard
Audience Question:
Q: Is there a way to optimize the listing for a custom category? I know that we used to be able to through Map Maker, but since August it hasn't been available.[Andrew Mendel]
A: Can't any more. Google picks up your cats based on your site and 3rd party data more now that before. So opt those for your niche cat.
Audience Question:
Q: Is there a way to request a specific category? IE: Erosion contgrol..[Andrew Mendel]
A: Nope
Audience Question:
Q: Are you noticing that google is stil calling to verify business listings or are they relying strictly on their algorithm[oron rosenkrantz]
A: They still call from time to time
Q: Dealerships have had a weird impact since the Pigeon update[Amir Jafari]
Audience Question:
Q: Can you do this even if the business relocated a while ago?[Zane Tuck]
A: Yes
Audience Question:
Q: Are there any tools that can track pigeon historical changes over time for a specific business listing in packs?[Sam Ilowitz]
A: There are some I've posted about in the forum but they are borked since Pigeon
Q: I had a client who had a top pack ranking and then one day, Google seemed to change the address format ... same address, just format change (e.g., 222 South 5th Street to 222 S. 5th St) ... then it seemed soon after, they dropped out of the pack altogether. Is there a correlation? How do you know what address format to use?[Chris Swanson]
Q: Many of my client's have business models that do not have relevant GMB categoires (ie MMJ Dispensaries or E-cigarette stores). Several of these client's will not work with me to optmize their website, and their local search results have plummeted after Pigeon was rolled out. Other than optimizing the G+ Local page and niche citations, are there any other strategies that can be implemented to help their visibility in regard to local search queries that do not have synonmous GMB categories?[Matt Palermo ]
Audience Question:
Q: i have client, changed their website address, lost their listings.[Mike Mulkern]
A: This makes sense since algo is tied to site.
Q: hello?[jami broom]
Audience Question:
Q: is it better to have more categories for google my business pages? or is it a "less is more" sitatuion? I've been told the latter by google local help but have seen results that disprove that.[Charles Taylor]
A: The best practice is to pick the MOST relevant categories
Audience Question:
Q: any specific time interval you've noticed, when they call my customers they don't know what to do with that and get confused and expect that i take care of it for them as their seo[oron rosenkrantz]
A: No, sorry. Can you do a brif training session with clients on how to handle?
Q: Speaking of the radius, what do people search? Their zip code, next largest city, state?[k hopp]
Q: is it ok to use lead tracking / call tracking software for your numbers in the google+ listing? A service such as Call Tracking Intelligence & Lead Tracking Analytics that allows you to generate lead tracking phone numbers?[David deLeon]
Q: Between June and July, our business took a huge drop in our rankings. We used to be on page 1 rank 1 for the majority of our targeted search phrases and now we are lucky to be on page 3...I checked the external links pointing back to our site and one specific site had over 6,000 links pointing back to us...I created a disavow file with 97 different domains I found had linked back to us in a spammy manner and uploaded it to my google webmaster tools..might this fix our ranking issue? We were never officially penalized for spammy links in manual actions on webmaster tools..[Anthony Caglia]
Q: Had a dealer that had no access to their existing GMB, so we created a new one. They are a used car dealer. We added that as a category & then added Nissan Dealer, Chevy Dealer, etc. Dealer lost all "used" traffic and shot up for new car search phrases. Removed the categories and kept it used car dealer. All of a sudden GMB merged both the old and the new pages, starting to slowly rank for used terms but still dominating new car. Trying to remove that altogether.[Amir Jafari]
Q: Hmmm... I'm not seeing any answers to my questions, but there are answers to other questions.[Tim Colling]
Q: do you think linking their yelp page to the google my business page couuld help visibilty since yelp results are appearing in organic?[Charles Taylor]
Audience Question:
Q: Any mention of the city or any geo keyword in the description still a violation of guidelines?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: It probably can do harm if it's done in a spammy way. Write the description for the user and you should be fine.
Q: For brands that had exisiting G+Brand pages, and G+Local(myBusiness) page - do you still recommend having a brand G+ page and mybusiness G+ or consolidating to one profile (ex.1 brand page, 2 local pages)?[Tim Soltysiak]
Q: How do virtual offices come into play when talking about the significance of proximity. Are others using virtual offices to their benefit?[Jay Orlando]
Q: that would make sense but some of them have multiple employees including those that are part time that don't really care to take things seriously[oron rosenkrantz]
Q: On the subject of brand, is there a noticialbe difference in the way Google ranks national brands with retail locations versus local brands?[Benjamin Hong]
Audience Question:
Q: Can locations be the most relevant categories? [Mary Grace Donaldson]
A: Not sure I understand?
Q: Can anyone see this?[Tim Colling]
Q: What do you consider relevant categories?[Mary Grace Donaldson]
Audience Question:
Q: For an office with three offices and that closes one of them, shifting the business to the other two, can we get Google to show the closed one as "relocated" rather than "closed"? "Closed" sounds really bad to consumers.[Tim Colling]
A: The message normally say's closed OR relocated
Q: My client's site ranks locally when we search with google.com - #1 and disappears in Google.ca for local search under the same keyword phrase. Her office is right in the middle of the city.[Terry McGraw]
Audience Question:
Q: Does this mean the actual location of your office will now affect your SERP[Jose Triana]
A: It's always been that way to some degree
Q: "The message normally say's closed OR relocated"[Tim Colling]
Q: When I search for a google + page - it' lists it but under it it says "Missing: Google+" with a line through it - what does this mean?[Susan Staupe]
Q: "The message normally say's closed OR relocated" - not in my experience. It just says, "closed".[Tim Colling]
Q: I have a pending change that has been displayed on my Google Map Maker listing for the past 6 months. Is this something that could hurt my local rankings?[Faiz Merchant]
Audience Question:
Q: Does anyone know anymore about this relocation feature? [Ashley B]
A: Check out the GMB Help Center
Q: can we use my business as an example? It would help getting past all this absract stuff.[Peter Ray]
Q: Is there a separate algorithm for a local search on mobile devices vs. desktop? If so, do mobile result take priority, and do the results on desktop mirror those of mobile?[Gina Jennings]
Audience Question:
Q: I have a client who also has completely disappeared after appearing in top local slots. They are OK in Map Maker. Spoke with G Locall support who sees no probelms (not sure they are very helpful). Any other ideas?[Celeste Bishop]
A: Celeste, would need details. You should post over at the Local Search Forum
Q: Is it wise to build smaller/lower authority citations with a link to a company's custom city-based landing page, or keep the URLs the same for all listings?[Amir Jafari]
Audience Question:
Q: For SEO rankings, is it best to link your Google + local page or business page to the kep may listing?[Joy Hawkins]
A: Don't understand?
Q: organic results, do Google+ posts and pictures only show in results if someone follows a business?[Chris Petracco]
Q: Organic rankings for geo targeted terms are easy to obtain and that is where we put a majority of our focus.[Daniel Motes]
Q: how has pigeon affect companies that are lets say not in a main city like San Diego but are in La Jolla but want to rank for San Diego[Derrick O'Keefe]
Audience Question:
Q: Have you seen any drop in rankings where a business has changed from a location to a service area[Martin Lloyd]
A: No I haven't
Q: In what situation would a marketer focus on Bing results. I never hear any talk of that search engine though I know they get 20ish % of the searches[George BARDENHEIER]
Audience Question:
Q: It is worth it for buisnesses to buy a "remote office" to improve local ranking?[Lance Moore]
A: Define "Remote Office"?
Audience Question:
Q: With the introduction of New Google Maps, when will Classic Maps no longer be an option?[Maria DeMesa]
A: Good question. Nobody knows.
Q: Is google changing the address in the G+ location, I have seen the addition ofthe word Town Centre in the uk - these descriptions are not in the address settings only on the displayed address[Geoff Kennedy ]
Q: Whats PAC returns [Bill Douglass]
Q: If the location keywords customers use in a search query is not a specific city that Google recognizes in the search tools, should we opt for the keywords customers search with? [Thomas Smodic]
Audience Question:
Q: Is the location of a SAB as important as the location of physical locations?[Michelle Southworth]
A: From our experience, it can have an impact, yes.
Q: besides setting up google analytics for each image, is there a way to track "views" to see where the images are being seen? google tells me the views are images, but I don't know where they are being viewed.[Chris Petracco]
Audience Question:
Q: Creating a new My Business page allows the verify web address button which creates a check mark by the url. Any way to do this for an already existing listing or when claiming a listing?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: Too many Qs to keep up with. For questions we can’t get to during the event, please post at the Webinar Forum Thread – Deep Impact of the Pigeon Update: Free Webinar w/ Blumenthal, Shotland, Hawkins
Audience Question:
Q: Creating a new My Business page allows the verify web address button which creates a check mark by the url. Any way to do this for an already existing listing or when claiming a listing?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: All you can do is add publisher mark-up to your site and hope for the best
Audience Question:
Q: what is SAB?[Faiz Merchant]
A: Service Area Business
Q: Why not just build big blog networks, they are safe right? Just kidding :)[Daniel Motes]
Audience Question:
Q: with the penguin update, do you have a list of most important factors now?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Penguin is different. An organic penalty.
Q: BRAVO!!! Nike[Ben Joslin]
Q: Is Ask Jeeves relevant for local?[Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: Is it making more sense to start blending in local PPC on Google rather than just to rely on SEO rankings?[Chris Pistorius]
A: PPC can be a great supplement to Local SEO
Audience Question:
Q: And Adwords[Keenan Glass]
A: My Man!
Audience Question:
Q: Does Google still recognize virtual offices as a real location? [Craig Backus]
A: Nope it's a violation
Audience Question:
Q: does google care where you create the places page from? if the business resides in a different city etc?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: You'll usually only rank in the city the biz is in.
Audience Question:
Q: In GMB Which is better? Having a verified website with the checkmark, or being PIN-verified?[Zane Tuck]
A: Pin verified.
Q: it depends on the geo and business segment[Brian Johnson]
Audience Question:
Q: In GMB Which is better? Having a verified website with the checkmark, or being PIN-verified?[Zane Tuck]
A: but also depends on the type og G+ page
Q: to verify, having the city name in the Name or description is a violation?[Sean Clark]
Q: What's the difference (PIN verifired vs website verified)?[Celeste Bishop]
Audience Question:
Q: Any advice for mobile business that use UPS stores for addresses?[Steven Dale]
A: Stop using a UPS store address :)
Q: Please have panelests discuss virtual offices[Jay Orlando]
Audience Question:
Q: Any advice for mobile business that use UPS stores for addresses?[Steven Dale]
A: Haha Colan stole my words!
Q: There are better options than ups stores.[Matt Maglodi]
Q: when discovering multiple listings for a single business how do you determine what is the best one to use? [jason brown]
Q: in the us - search town/city vs county - in more rurla areas counties are moe common for search - any thoughts about distance and rank?[Chris Petracco]
Q: How does Google determine the center of a city? Near city hall? Long/Lat center? or where the center of where other like-businesses are?[Byron Hardie]
Q: Should a brand have a G+brand page and G+Business page for each location? Or a single G+ page?[Tim Soltysiak]
Audience Question:
Q: If your office is a virtual location, but you have properly hidden the address in G+ listing and marked as service area business, is this still in violation or "frowned upon."[Irvin Politte]
A: It's in violation. Unless it's staffed byt the business and able to accept walk-in customers during the stated hours.
Q: how about using youtube videos for local search[Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: When I do a search for a client's g+ page - it shows up -but underneath it , it says "Missing : Google+" - with a line through it - what does this mean?[Susan Staupe]
A: Have never seen that. Can you post at my forum or the Local Search Pro G+ Community Susan with screenshot?
Audience Question:
Q: UPS Stores still work but that is dangerous[Daniel Motes]
A: Very
Q: if you use a tracking number, do you see that it diminishes that value of your own local number with Google? i find a tracking number doesn't get as many calls, especially if it is not a local area code, but could it also mess with the organic rankings? Has pigeon had an impact on this?[jami broom]
Q: Yes, will do linda. thank you![Susan Staupe]
Audience Question:
Q: Is city center location still relevant or is it the exact location the person is searching from?[Robin Mordini]
A: City Center isn't as relevant as it used to be. The user is the new centroid. Or the center of the business cluster.
Q: Does a local area code/toll free phone number impact listing ranking?[Vlad Raush]
Q: Has anyone noticed the layout of Bing Local SERPS is now very similar to the results of Google Local... has anyone cracked the code on the Google knowledge graph / carousel/ ranking locally? What is everyones thought on local Bing optimization...?[Evan Oder]
Audience Question:
Q: that's fine, the question more relates to the fact that i create a google account and place page from my city for a customer in san francisco. does it matter?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Oh ya you as a consultant can create listing from anywhere. All us consultants do that. Sorry misunderstood Q
Q: How much time do you believe these changes in algorithm will take to be implemented in other countries? Is there any url where we can see what "algorithm version" each country is using? ie: Spain - Panda 3.0, France...[Jaime Menor]
Audience Question:
Q: is the info in this section going to be avaialble afterward - at least as valuable as the actual webinar...[Celeste Bishop]
A: Yes it is - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: what is the maximum raduis after which a ohysical location becomes necessary?[Amit Salkar]
Audience Question:
Q: Does Google have a cap on local search result numbers?[Terry Pierce]
A: Normally 7 these days. Used to be 10
Audience Question:
Q: I f i am working with 20 local clients, is it ok for me to craete all the google+ pages from my own personal account?[David deLeon]
A: No no no. Can cause all kinds of problems. Have helped consultants that got the entire account suspended with all clients penalized when there was only a problem with 1 - or 2. Don't do it.
Q: We've got satellite offices where we meet with clients as needed. Google guidelines require a location to be staffed with regular hours. How many hours are required to pass the sniff test here?[todd mccall]
Audience Question:
Q: Does google take into account CTR for local listing rankings?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: According to the Local Search Ranking Factor Study, it's a strong signal
Audience Question:
Q: if your listing has been banned due to violation, how can you reinstate it? Or are you banned for life?[Andrew Mendel]
A: I would contact GMB Support
Audience Question:
Q: Are the spam listings discussed here the same as listings on a web directory, or listings on Google?[Mary Grace Donaldson]
A: No there are different guidelines for local listings and many people don't know what the violations are. There are also unwritten rules to learn about to stay safe.
Audience Question:
Q: Are the spam listings discussed here the same as listings on a web directory, or listings on Google?[Mary Grace Donaldson]
A: They are referring to Google+ Local listings
Q: What can you share about the Carousel Results? I see they only show for certain categories. But if you see a top 7 pack (or so) if you click on "People also Searched for" you get a totally different Carousel of "People Also Searched for" Results[Charlie Barks]
Q: Pigeon looks to really favor Google Business View[Matt Maglodi]
Audience Question:
Q: Is it advisable to add myself as a manager of my client's G+ pages with my company email address?[Thomas Smodic]
A: Sure, why not.
Audience Question:
Q: "It's in violation. Unless it's staffed byt the business and able to accept walk-in customers during the stated hours. " - So what about businesses which only meet clients at their homes like house cleaners? I was under the impression businesses in this model could just hide their address and use service area?[Irvin Politte]
A: Yes that's true
Audience Question:
Q: what is GMB?[Andrew Mendel]
A: Google My Business. That's the name of the local product these days.
Audience Question:
Q: where is the Local Search Ranking Factor Study[oron rosenkrantz]
A: At Moz, no time to find link too many Qs
Q: Can you link with a PBN to a Google listing[Emily Diaz]
Audience Question:
Q: where is the Local Search Ranking Factor Study[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Local Search Ranking Factors 2014 - Local SEO and How to Rank in Google - Moz
Audience Question:
Q: What is best practice if requesting PIN postcard and it never shows up after 2 weeks? Tried twice over 2 months and it never shows up at local business address.[Sam Ilowitz]
A: Contact phone support
Audience Question:
Q: Is GMB the same as Google + page[Derrick O'Keefe]
A: GMB is the back-end Dashboard, and Google+ Local is the name of the user facing live page
Q: So would it be best to have a URL state+service.com, or city+service.com? Facial plastic surgeon.[k hopp]
Q: There's phone support? lol[Amir Jafari]
Q: should I use customers gmail accounts or create new gmail accounts for the customer to create the google+ listings in order to prevent having them all in one account?[David deLeon]
Audience Question:
Q: Look at San Jose Plumbing the 3 or 4 pack very spammy[Matt Maglodi]
A: Pigeon kinda likes spam!
Q: Great tip! Any particular brand of beer??[Chris Agro]
Q: Is drinking a beer considered a strong ranking signal?[Matt Maglodi]
Q: Does beer affect local search ranking? LOL[Jaime Menor]
Q: Anticipation is the key to surviving any of their updates[Daniel Motes]
Q: echo[Sarah Dunphy]
Audience Question:
Q: So creating G+ pages with my company email address isn't advisable, but managing them with it is okay?[Thomas Smodic]
A: Yes, that would be a much better practice
Q: Thank you![Thomas Smodic]
Audience Question:
Q: what is GMB?[Andrew Mendel]
A: Google Places changed to Google My Business back in June
Audience Question:
Q: What about reviews theses how important is to get them placed on various directories? Just curious because it is hard to tell which are real and which are fake.[Ken Davidson]
A: Off topic for this one which is just about Pigeon. But I think we cover reviews in another webinar.
Q: Myles is completely garbled. More than usual, even. :-)[Tim Colling]
Audience Question:
Q: Does geo-tagging images for submissions to directories and Google Mybusiness even have any benefit or is this just more for images on your website?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: Any extra geo signals are useful. But I wouldn't count on it to move the ranking needle.
Q: Is it better for my clients to submit map maker problems for spammy businesses in their area because they are in the same general area?[Thomas Smodic]
Audience Question:
Q: How do you find the email address for Google support in order to tell them your business has moved?[Nicole Dimetman]
A: https://support.google.com/business/...9639&contact=1
Q: getting more reviews will move the needle[Matt Maglodi]
Q: how do you get in contact with google listing reviewers?[oron rosenkrantz]
Q: Q: does the age or activity of the google account you create for a google my business listing matter? will it show as spammy?[oron rosenkrantz]
Audience Question:
Q: So once that "relocated" message shows up on the old G+ page, does it also show up in MapMaker as "Relocated" instead of "Place closed"?[Andrew Polanski]
A: Eventually, but I don't think it would be automatic.
Audience Question:
Q: Thanks. But this provides a number not an email. Joy was saying that you need to email in order to get anywhere[Nicole Dimetman]
A: Ah, there isn't a public e-mail that I know of
Audience Question:
Q: Now that rel author schema tags are no longer read by Google is it a waste of time to keep adding this line of code to future websites?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: Regional Expert Reviewer
Q: CTR for ads is always the reason for updates[Daniel Motes]
Audience Question:
Q: by how much has the radius shrinked (in miles)[Amit Salkar]
A: Totally depends each case diff.
Audience Question:
Q: Joy said to get to know the R E R people, what does R E R stand for?[Von Smith]
A: Regional Expert Reviewer
Q: I've noticed an issue geo-targeting my adwords campaign and I'm wondering (now that I'm listening to the panel) whether it's connected with the Pigeon update[Kimbers Sheppard]
Q: What aboutnfor apartment category[Andrew Greenhalgh]
Audience Question:
Q: is it necessary to have a physical location beyond 15 miles to rank in local?[Amit Salkar]
A: Not sure I understand
Audience Question:
Q: is it necessary to have a physical location beyond 15 miles to rank in local?[Amit Salkar]
A: Typically will only rank in city you are in
Audience Question:
Q: Ha, will Joy share who she is emailing?[Nicole Dimetman]
A: You will have to ask her ;)
Audience Question:
Q: they have lost map listings all together[Andrew Greenhalgh]
A: Yes many real estate related listings lost packs
Q: read an article in a local business magazine that said that HTTPS sites rank higher than http sites...is this true and has pigron changed this?[Mike Siegel]
Audience Question:
Q: How do you get to know or identify the RER?[Tim Soltysiak]
A: Spend some time at the Map Maker Help Community or Map MAker itself
Audience Question:
Q: Thanks! :) How can we get that list of resources that Joy gave to Myles?[Von Smith]
A: I will get it and post in the forum thread here after: Deep Impact of the Pigeon Update: Free Webinar w/ Blumenthal, Shotland, Hawkins
Q: have seen a lot of GEO targeted landing pages rank in Google .. have u notived it?[Amit Salkar]
Q: how has pigeon affect companies that are lets say not in a main city like San Diego but are in La Jolla but want to rank for San Diego[Derrick O'Keefe]
Q: but the audio is good.[Chris Agro]
Audience Question:
Q: Not familiar with MapMaker how does it differ from Google Local for Business set up for local business. If we already have set up using Google local is there something that should be done in Mapmaker too?[Frank Motola]
A: chekc this out - Google Map Maker
Q: Thanks! :)[Von Smith]
Audience Question:
Q: Do we know when the Pigeon update is expected to hit Europe?[James Bavington]
A: Nobody does, no.
Audience Question:
Q: Not familiar with MapMaker how does it differ from Google Local for Business set up for local business. If we already have set up using Google local is there something that should be done in Mapmaker too?[Frank Motola]
A: Don't edit in Map Maker if don't understand. It's complicated. But if add to GMB should be in MM too.
Q: knowledge graph in mobile?[Chris Petracco]
Q: Knowledge graph shows up for service based industries, like lawyers, which is ridiculous[Chris Homer]
Audience Question:
Q: What can you say about clients copy pasting their Google review to other review sites like Yelp? Is having the same exact review in some ways be seen as a negative?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: It's not a good idea becasue the reviews may get filtered from the Google page
Q: What role does knowledge graph play on mobile with screen sizes much smaller.[Chip Jones]
Audience Question:
Q: Any idea why a site would rank in local search #1 in Google.com and not at all for Google.ca even though this is a Canadian site?[Terry McGraw]
A: Different data centers
Audience Question:
Q: Any idea why a site would rank in local search #1 in Google.com and not at all for Google.ca even though this is a Canadian site?[Terry McGraw]
A: Probably something to do with Pigeon since it hasn't hit Canada
Q: I've seen a dramatic decrese in visibility for regional apartment rental websites (single websites covering multiple states) but an increase in positioning for apartment rentals sites for single properties. However, favor definite goes to the apartment aggregators (apartments.com, forrent.com, etc). What would be the logic for favoring aggregator sites and single property sites over multi-property sites?[Caleb Ross]
Q: Going on MIke's idea of SEO moving to PR.. Has anyone seen benefit with YOST wordpress for Google news feed?[Charles Taylor]
Audience Question:
Q: when will pigeon hit canada?[Faiz Merchant]
A: Nobody knows Faiz
Q: how important is creating landing pages for each surrounding location around ur target area. will that help to improve traffic?[Amit Salkar]
Q: Should one-man businesses who work from home, use their home address for their listing - does Pigeon affect this at all?[James Bavington]
Audience Question:
Q: how has pigeon affect reviews on the G+ pages we have had lots of problems with Dr. office reviews not sticking[Derrick O'Keefe]
A: There is no correlation between Pigeon and Google reviews as far as I know
Q: So odd as the site was #2 before in Canada ...before Pidgeon.[Terry McGraw]
Q: Has Pigeon affected the impact of Google Business View feature (Virtual Tour)?[Robert Reynolds]
Audience Question:
Q: Q: does the age or activity of the google account you create for a google my business listing matter in regards to it being more likely displayed as spam?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Not sure what age would have to do with with spam. Normally age/longevity implies more trust.
Audience Question:
Q: Q: does the age or activity of the google account you create for a google my business listing matter in regards to it being more likely displayed as spam?[oron rosenkrantz]
A: Not 100% sure, but I would bet it has at least a monor impact
Audience Question:
Q: has BRIGHTLOCAL been able to "fix" rank tracker for US results? we subscribed but had to discontinue due to inccorrect ranking results[andrew leonard]
A: I know they are working on it. But it's tricky. A post at my forum where Myles explains why
Audience Question:
Q: Are there any free service out there that can handle Factual submissions / corrections?[Ryan Asignacion]
A: Free? I haven't come across any
Audience Question:
Q: has BRIGHTLOCAL been able to "fix" rank tracker for US results? we subscribed but had to discontinue due to inccorrect ranking results[andrew leonard]
A: They are working hard and I think they are VERY close
Audience Question:
Q: has BRIGHTLOCAL been able to "fix" rank tracker for US results? we subscribed but had to discontinue due to inccorrect ranking results[andrew leonard]
A: Find it in here - look for tracking #pigeon - Search Results - Local Search Forum
Audience Question:
Q: will changin your phone from toll free to local impact PAC rankings?[Vlad Raush]
A: Any change to NAP will usually affect Pack rankings
Q: Do you see the next Pigeon update rolling out the same weeks as others, like Panda or Penguin? It seems like Google is starting to roll out major algo's within a short period of time[Chris Homer]
Audience Question:
Q: Have y'all discussed the doctor practices and the practice vs practioner issue? In our case, we were a single doctor practice so only created a single listing for the practice (DeLuca Plastic Surgery in Albany NY). Recently though, we added a second MD and are now building citations to a listing for him. Should we also start building citations to a new practioner listing for the original MD (Dr. DeLuca)?[Will DeLuca]
A: Too complicated - need to see listings. Please post in the forum
Q: will the changes be positive with local numbers correlating to location?[Vlad Raush]
Audience Question:
Q: So Adwords is a component to potential Local Pack increasing rankings? sorry if that was grammatically incorrect[Amir Jafari]
A: No, but it can be a great supplement
Audience Question:
Q: How accurate are the phone call results in the insights in GMB[Maria DeMesa]
A: It's hard to tell, but I think they are pretty accurate.
Q: There is no "I don't know" option for the poll.[jami broom]
Audience Question:
Q: Will we have a link to all of the Q & A's asked today? difficult to keep track of it all.[Kieran Headley]
A: Yes it will be here - Webinar QA thread and recording will be posted at - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: Business already has a lot of citations but thinking about payng for Yext. Is it worth it for premiere listings alone? Yext vs Yahoo vs Moz?[Ryan Asignacion]
Audience Question:
Q: Will we have a link to all of the Q & A's asked today? difficult to keep track of it all.[Kieran Headley]
A: Will post QA in the forum here: Deep Impact of the Pigeon Update: Free Webinar w/ Blumenthal, Shotland, Hawkins
Q: thank you guys![David deLeon]
Audience Question:
Q: Thanks Andrew, Myles, Mike, Joy, Linda and Colan!!! :)[Von Smith]
A: Our Pleaseure
Q: Has there been any info on when fixes to Pigeon might take place? [karen cicchino]
Q: Thanks for the discussion guys, very insightful[Brian Glassman]
Q: Thank you so much!!!![kaycie smith]
Q: Thanks for the answers. Have a good day all. [Irvin Politte]
Q: Thanks everyone[Jaime Menor]
Q: Thx![Celeste Bishop]
Q: Ive registered for the forum but currently in moderation queue. Approximately how long will that take to approve?[Faiz Merchant]
Q: Thanks![Charles Kim]
Q: Thanks to all it was a great presentation and very informative. Look forward to more.[Ken Davidson]
Q: Thank you so much! I'm ready for a beer ;-)[Maria DeMesa]
Q: thanks everyone[Morgan Erickson]
Q: Thanks Guys, and Gals :) [Chris Harati]
Audience Question:
Q: When will matt cutts return?[Matt Maglodi]
A: My crystal ball is borked!
Q: THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH! [Susan Staupe]
Q: Thank you guys.[Will Davis]
Q: Where are we going for drinks after this?[Robert Reynolds]
Q: How important is on page seo anymore for local results?[oron rosenkrantz]
Q: I work with automotive dealers. How can I share the Pigeon shake with the rest of the community?[Amir Jafari]
Q: Thanks for your time![Daniel Motes]
Q: Great webinar[Will Davis]
Q: lol[Matt Maglodi]
Q: Because dealer LSERP are *still* fluctuating like crazt.[Amir Jafari]
Audience Question:
Q: Will the decks be posted? I got stuck on a plane and just made it >:-|[Kyle Sanders]
A: Webinar QA thread and recording will be posted at - http://localsearchforum.catalystemar...webinar-w.html
Q: What does borked mean? [Thomas Smodic]
Q: Can we get more of Linda messing with fake Google reps on the phone?[Ryan Asignacion]
=================================================
Haha Ryan - glad you liked my recording of that scammer!
WHEW! I missed the entire webinar, because as you can see Colan and I were buried with tons of great questions! So I'm as excited as you are for the video, which should be posted by tomorrow at the link below.
If your question did not get answered or you want us to elaborate, please ask in the main Webinar thread here. I need to close this thread to replies because it's so long it keeps making the forum time out.