Spend any real time in the small business marketing world and you’ll quickly be inundated with new services, new tools, new updates, new features and new things everyone thinks you should be aware of. As a result, it’s not always easy to decide what truly demands your attention and what can be written off as background noise. For that reason it’s possible that when Google Place Pages was first released a few months ago, you ignored it. And if that’s the case, it’s time to reconsider your position.

Spend any real time in the small business marketing world and you’ll quickly be inundated with new services, new tools, new updates, new features and new things everyone thinks you should be aware of. As a result, it’s not always easy to decide what truly demands your attention and what can be written off as background noise. For that reason it’s possible that when Google Place Pages was first released a few months ago, you ignored it. And if that’s the case, it’s time to reconsider your position.

1. Your customers are looking for you online: While at SMX West last week, Gregg Stewart of 15 Miles noted that 20 percent of all searches on Google now have a local intent, and that number is even higher when you look at searches performed on mobile devices. SEO expert Bruce Clay later predicted that in two years 70-80 percent of queries will have a local result on the page (!). That’s pretty significant and offers a good indication of where things are going. Searchers are headed online to find local businesses and, thanks to personalization, Google is showing local results even when a user doesn’t specifically ask for them. Users are looking for your business online and one of the best ways to help them find you is to claim, optimize and enhance your Google Place Page. By ignoring it, you make it harder for customers to do business with you. Why do that?

2. Google Places acts as a one-stop-shop for your brand: One reason some small business owners aren’t too friendly to Place Pages is that they resent Google decentralizing their information and pulling people from their core site. Unfortunately, that’s exactly why users like these aggregate pages. They like being able to check out one page and see all your vital information. Embrace it and give users what they’re looking for. Because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how a user finds your address and phone number…just that they do and that you’ve excited them enough to use it.

3. Google loves (to rank) Place Pages: Thanks to some Google algorithm changes, Place Pages have been given significant search prominence. That means whether you like them or not, they’re showing up, and potential customers are stumbling upon them. As a savvy business owner, you must do your part and help those searchers find you by completely filling out your Google Place Page. I know it’s a little monotonous to always be filling out those little boxes all over the Web, but you’re being asked for a reason – Google is using that information to rank you. Fill out everything, be careful when selecting your business category, and include as much information and (keyword-rich) details as you can. The more complete (and keyword-rich) your profile, the better.

4. Google Places connects third-party sites: You know the information being posted about you all over the Web? Much of it is being aggregated and displayed in your Google Place page. That means what’s out there about you for your business – all the reviews, the associated images, the business information, etc. – is getting more attention than ever before. If you don’t know what’s out there about your brand, Google Place Pages provides more incentive for you to find out. Take this time to make sure it’s all accurate and consistent. Read more at smallbiztrends.com

New: Google Disables Starring Results On Search Results

Google has disabled the ability to star search results from within the Google search results page.

As you may remember, Google replaced SearchWiki with starring results back in March 2010, about 16-months after Google launched SearchWiki. Now that Google has re-introduced a way to block sites in Google, Google has determined you no longer need to star search results from the search results page.

This does not mean that you can no longer see stars in your Google search results. It does however mean that you will no longer be able to star results directly from the search results. Instead, you now need to go Google Bookmarks and add a bookmark there for a star to show up in your search results. Read more at searchengineland.com

Over the past few months we’ve seen Google push location reviews pretty hard. Its Hotpot feature has been developing quickly and today the company has added something pretty significant – Twitter integration for place reviews in the Android Maps app.

The ‘Post Review to Twitter’ feature is available in an update to Google Maps that launches today. Also included is a new feature for social location sharing service Latitude. Now when you see that a friend is nearby on the map, you can ‘Ping’ them right from inside the app. This will cause a notification to appear on the friend’s Android device, helping you arrange to meet. Read more at thenextweb.com

Sales originate through traffic. Google is the number one source of traffic, accounting for up to 80 percent of total traffic on e-commerce sites (organic, paid, and shopping). Does Google like your site? And, most importantly, does Google like and deliver traffic to your product page, on which the “add to cart” button is located? We analyzed the top 20 e-commerce sites (Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide 2010) and here’s what we found. While most sites do a good job optimizing their pages/URLs, many sites have ignored their user-generated content (UGC), which is unfortunate, because that content is often the most valuable in Google’s eyes.

25 to 35 percent of traffic for large e-commerce sites is organic search (SEO).

The highest converting SEO traffic is traffic that lands directly on your product page.

Google favors fresh UGC (user/customer-generated content) in its search results.

The UGC on the product page is customer reviews - ubiquitous on the Web, proven to drive conversion, and consumers’ number one social tool in the buying process.

Google indexing customer reviews directly on your product page is absolutely required to optimize your product page for SEO.

65 percent of the top e-commerce sites do not have customer reviews indexed on their product pages.

Amazon’s reviews on its product pages are indexed by Google. Staples, Apple, Sears, SonyStyle, NewEgg, and Grainger also have reviews indexed by Google, rounding out those in the top 20.

Below is what an Amazon and Staples product page looks like to Google. In gray, under the retailer logo, you’ll see the Amazon/Staples product page as consumers see it. Under the Google icon next to each consumer view, you’ll see the same page as Google sees it, highlighting indexed UGC in green.

See more at www.clickz.com

While Microsoft’s Bing and Google have just added social media to their search engines, Facebook appears to have upgraded its own search: the site now groups query results under category headings. Previously, search results would show up in the drop-down menu without any organization, but now Facebook organizes them by category headings, as you can see in the screenshot to the right. This change saves you from having to click on “see more results from search,” followed by “show results from everyone.” It’s not clear whether the site has a predetermined order for listing categories. Read more at www.allfacebook.com

Google announced they have added Google Instant to Google Shopping Search view within the web results.

If you are on Google.com, search for a product and then filter your search on the left hand side by “Shopping”, Google Instant will allow you to search for new products. Interestingly enough, this does not seem to work off the Google Product Search home page. Read more at searchengineland.com

A year since it’s introduction even Google is surprised by how successful “Click to Call” has become. “We’re seeing millions of calls every month; it has become a core part of a large number mobile search ad campaigns,” said Google’s Surojit Chatterjee who is in charge of the product.

That same phrase — millions of calls — was also mentioned by Google Product SVP Jonathan Rosenberg on the company’s most recent earnings call: “Click-to-Call ads are generating millions of calls every month. A lot of advertisers are running these campaigns.”

I asked Chatterjee about the geographic distribution of calls. He said the product is available around the world but that call volumes “follow the growth of smartphones.” That means lots of calls in North America and Europe. “We are seeing a lot of movement in Japan,” he added.

Click to Call ads rely on Google AdWords phone extensions and are available on paid search and display ads in mobile. Phone extensions can also be combined with location extensions, which together dynamically insert a phone number and map plus-box into mobile ads.

In many cases Google is serving mobile ads that are precisely targeted by location and showing a business that is the closest to the user. “We’ve seen really good performance on these hyper local ads,” said Chatterjee. Read more at searchengineland.com

With all the talk about social media these days, you might think that the key to marketing your business and even driving sales lies entirely with sites like Facebook and Twitter, but, if you market your product or service online, harnessing the power of Google for your small business is still important. By this, of course, we mean search marketing, the general focus of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and, while there are other search engines to consider, SEO expert Aaron Wall reckons Google still makes up about 75 percent of the search market. Here are some things every small business owner planning to market online should know to capture it. Read more at smallbiztrends.com

Experian Hitwise has just released their December report which shows that Google overwhelmingly accounts for most of the searches conducted on the web in the US. 69.97% to be exact with the nearest competitor, Bing, coming in at only 25.77%.

But while Google is still the chosen search engine of the masses, it’s not the most accurate. According to Experian’s numbers, 81% of the searches on Bing and Yahoo! Search resulted in a trip to a web address. Google only showed a 65% success rate.

See more at www.marketingpilgrim.com

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, has obtained information from Google and Bing regarding their use of social signals to help rank search results.  Meaning, are they using data from the social graph of sites like Facebook and Twitter to calculate rankings.  The answer:  yes and no.

Marketing Takeaways for SMBs

Social search is here to stay and evolving. There can be no denial that social powered aspects of search are only going to increase.  If you’re hesitant to find the value in social media sites like Twitter, you’re missing an opportunity that will grow as time goes on.

Optimize for social search now. Social search will require optimization in the same way SEO does–social media optimization.  Ensuring your content (at every point) is optimized for search and social sharing, will be important in link building and leveraging of any social signals Google and  Bing may use. Read more at websuccessdiva.com

Mobile Links Shoppers

See more at googleretail.blogspot.com

Take a trip down marketing lane in Google and you’ll find plenty of SEO myths shared as fact.  Like old wives tales, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, costing business owners dearly in wasted time and focus.

Take a trip down marketing lane in Google and you’ll find plenty of SEO myths shared as fact.  Like old wives tales, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction, costing business owners dearly in wasted time and focus. Read more at websuccessdiva.com