While Searching for Houston Hotels for a research project i came across a new Beta Experiment from Google.

Google Hotel Finder

It is a Map based search filtering tool that allows one to find Hotels in the selected area.

What Makes this tool different from others ? Read on to find why i liked it.

        As i mentioned before Google implements Map Based Search Filtering. The user gets to select the city that they are interested in finding a Hotel in. You can drag the Map to include the exact locality you wish to stay in and see all the Hotels in the selected Map area. Further Filtering is allowed based on Reviews from Google Places ( As you know with Google’s Latest update only Google Members Reviews will show), Ratings of Hotels,  Price Range  and it also lets you see how this hotel costs for the time period selected as compared to normally.

Clicking on a Hotel allows you to see several inside and outside pictures of the Hotel, the Google Places Reviews,  the description from the Places Listing for the Hotel and  clicking on Book Hotel  shows a quick Price Comparision between 3- 4 different online providers .  I saw Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com and the Hotel Site itself  competing among themselves.

A few interesting observations that i noticed.

1. The main reviews are from Google Places , however when you click to see all the reviews at the very bottom almost hidden you’ll see links to reviews from TripAdvisor and Citysearch present.
2. All the pictures for the Hotels are NOT from the places listings but from a third party firm called VFM Leonardo. They seem to be manage photo distribution and syndication
3. Only available for the US Market for now
   

This is a Great way for Google to use their Search Engines, Places Listings and Pricing Engine to make a Killer Tool for all Online Hotel Reservation Sites.

Let me know your thoughts on this beta tool. Whats Google coming up with next ? Google Vacations i would have to say

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this post, feel free to share them with us in the comments below. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook . Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.

You’re searching for a local Plumber using Google Local Listing (also known as Google Places).

However, how do you know whether the plumber is reliable and reputable ? The Reviews !  But how do you know if they are authentic reviews ?

We’ll go over a few Google Local Search Reviews to see for yourself if they are real reviews. Also we’ll go over Google Review Syndication.

Local Search Analysis:

I did a random search for “plumbers san diego ca” in google ( http://ow.ly/2qB9D ) and saw one listing (Bill Howe Plumbing)  that stood apart as it had 106 reviews !

If you click on the reviews for this fellow you’ll see that the top 5 reviews are all 5 stars, perfectly happy customers ! Thats a good thing right ?

So i decided to look into the details for the top 5 reviewers and noticed an odd pattern. I’ll use the latest reviewer : “Chappy” as an eg to show the odd pattern i found

This fellow is someone who takes posting reviews very seriously. All his reviews are 5 stars. On August 6th chappy has posted 17 reviews. Most of us dont have the time to post more then a couple in a day but thats ok, “chappy” takes reviews seriously.

However should one look further in detail you’ll see a lots of odd things :

1) On the review for Bill Plumbing “chappy” claims to be Megan M of San Diego Ca, however on the same day posts reviews under the names of Craig B of Denver CO, D G of Chicago IL, Danielle of Minneapolis, MN, Christi of Costa Mesa, CA

2) Chappy claims to be living at Legend Park Apts in Schaumburg, IL yet takes his/her ( not sure )  garage door to be fixed in Lake Forest, CA ! Further goes to a dentist in Boston, MA and uses a Spine Doctor in Chatham, NJ.

3) Posting of 17 reviews on Aug 6th alone and buying of several cars from various dealers all across the country

4) Always posting 5 star ratings ! I guess he/she is always extremly satisfied.

Now, would you agree with me, that there is an odd pattern here ? Also its the same pattern with the other top 5 reviewers for Bill Howe Plumbing. Which brings the question: Are these Reviews Authentic ?

There could be some explanations for the reviews done. Perhaps chappy is a young billionaire who has houses all over the country, travels on a daily basis for leisure or business. Perhaps used their services at one time and just got to posting the reviews on a day when they had nothing else to do.  I dont think thats its likely, but i really dont know. Perhaps you can come up with an explanation and share with all of us here ?

Now i must say that this is not an odd incident. I found similar questionable reviews for several other service providers like Chiropractors and even Criminal Attorneys. I found one case for a Criminal Attorney in Texas that specialized in military cases, where they had a review posted every 7 days on the dot. All of the reviews gave 5 star rating, each reviewer had only 1 review under their profile and the writing pattern was the same for all reviews.

I’d have to say that they were probably done by a Review Providing Service … Google Review Syndication. There are firms that provide reviews for business by either posting fake reviews using various techniques or claim to find your customers and get them to write their reviews on a post card, mail it to the review firm which then posts the customers reviews online under various accounts. Is this service acceptable to google ? While there is no official statement from Google regarding this service, i’m sure google review syndication would not classify as a review but as a comment.

Google’s guidelines are very straight forward. NO FAKE Reviews are acceptable and they do remove fake reviews, ban local listings for business if found to indulge in unfair and unethical methods. Are you willing to take that risk ? I’d recommend thinking twice before you hire a firm offering a review providing service.

I hope you’ll use this post to determine if the reviews you see in local listings for business are authentic or not and do share your thoughts on the eg’s i provided and let me know if you think they are authentic.

On a key note, i have to clarify that I have no affiliation with any Plumbing service. Also am not liable to any loss of business that any firms used in the eg’s may face due to this post. Also i would not be liable if google decided to ban the local listings for any firm mentioned here for unethical methods or non authentic reviews posted. I am not saying that they indulged in any unfair methods, thats for the readers to decide for themselves based on the facts i provided from the reviews.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on whether you think the reviews are authentic or not. Also if you have other methods to determine if a provider is reputable to not. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook. Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.

In my next post i’ll go over Top Citation Sources For Local SEO

UPDATE ( Aug 18, 2010 ): Stephanie, Communications Director from Bill Howe Plumbing contacted me to inform that all the reviews posted were genuine and that they had provided them to a Review Syndication firm they hired. The Syndication firm then posted the reviews for Bill Howe Plumbing.

This brings  me to ask

Should Review Firms Provide Proof that the Reviews posted are Genuine ? (Some do by posting a link to a scanned copy of the correspondence from the customer) Let me know your thoughts.

UPDATE ( Sep 13th 2010 ) : Looks like Google has responded to Review Syndication. At the time of writing this post Bill Howe had 106 Reviews showing on Google Places. Now there are only 75 Reviews showing. Did Google respond by removing the reviews they found questionable ? It would seem that way. Will this mark the end of Review Syndication ? feel free to post your thoughts on this below.

UPDATE ( Oct 2nd  2010 ) :  Google removed more reviews for Bill Howe. They have only 49 reviews showing on Google Places.

Ever done a google search for a service in your own area and seen listings for local providers show up on google maps BEFORE your normal google search results ?

Yes, you know what i’m talking about. You probably wondered how did they get there? I wish my Business was also listed on top of the local search results.

Well Now you can ! I’ll show you how in 3 Easy Steps.

I’ve seen firms have great Internet presence, however have weak local Internet presence. Its important to have a Strong Local Presence and this can be easily done using the 4 steps that i have listed below. It takes a few minutes to do it your self and is well worth it. This is Part 1 of a 3 Part Guide on How to Get Your Business Listed in Local Search Engine Listings. ( Google, Yahoo and Bing )

STEP 1 : Provide Your Business Details

Visit Google Local Business Center and log in using your Google/Gmail Username and Password. You’ll then be prompted to enter your Business Name, Address, Telephone, Email, Website URL, a Brief Description of your Business ( 200 words max ) and up to 5 Categories for your Business.

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STEP 2: Choose Your Verification Method

Once you have entered your Business Listing Details then you’ll have 2 Choices for Verification

(i) Phone Verification : Where Google calls the telephone provided

(ii) Mail Verification : Where Google sends you a postcard with a verification code

I’d recommend taking the mail verification as its better then waiting for a call. And you could get lucky and get a $100 Adwords Coupon from Google. Here’s what the verification card looks like.

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STEP 3: Confirm Verification Using Code

Verify your listing using the verification code either given to you on the phone or on the post card from Google and your listing will go live in about 6 weeks.

As you can see adding your site to be listed in Google Maps Local Listing is simple and easy. You dont need to hire a Professional SEO firm to do this for you. However for those who dont have the time and would rather hire someone to do this for them, feel free to contact me

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What i showed you was how to get the basic listing in Google Local Ads. Well recently Google took it a step forward and now offers an upgrade where you get a unique phone number from Google for tracking calls that you get from visitors to your local listing ad, ability to add Coupons, Detailed report on the calls received, clicks to your ad, driving directions to your business.

This upgrade is available for a flat monthly fee which varies based on your location, categories and is only available in San Francisco and San Diego, California for the moment.

If you’re having trouble getting your site listed in Google Local Listings and need advise do post your questions below or feel free to contact me here or on Twitter.

Next Steps To Get Your Business Listed in Yahoo Local Listings

As promised in my previous write up on why Business’s need to have a blog i’m writing on what not to do with your blog.

I see this happen a lot with Business Blogs. They have a great site and have a link to their blog, which when clicked go to their blog thats on a separate site hosted as a sub domain on blogspot or wordpress.

It just does not make sense to me and drives me crazy seeing this.

Dont get me wrong. I’m a great fan of WordPress. In fact my own site is on wordpress !  Let me tell you what not to do with your Business Blog and why you should not be having it on Blogspot or WordPress as a sub domain.

Here are my Top 4 Reasons for why not to have your Business Blog on Blogspot

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Reason 1 : Unprofessional

It Looks Unprofessional to have a Business Blog as a Free subdomain on Blogspot or WordPress or any other Free Blog Site. You really lose credibility and your authority level diminishes.  Get your blog hosted on YOUR OWN site. You can use WordPress as a subdomain on your own site and it looks so much better and is easy to install.

Reason 2: Traffic

By hosting your Business Blog on Blogspot as a freeby you are actually taking customers AWAY from your own site and on to blogspot, free to visit another blog. Do you really want that to happen ? You spend so much time getting customers to your own site only to have them leave as they click on your blog link.

Reason 3 : Loss of Search Engine Standing ( SEO Loss )

You do all this Search Engine Optimization for your Blog to get targeted traffic and your Blog gets a nice High Page Rank. But your site does not gain PR, its the Blogspot or WordPress site that is actually benefiting. Think about this : Can you get the PR transferred with your blog should you move your blog from the free blog on blogspot to another blog platform ? NOOOOOOO

Reason 4 : Moving is a NiteMare

Ever tried to move your blog from blogspot to your own blog on your own site ? It is a nitemare moving all the articles, the comments. These free blogs on blogspot dont make it easy for you to move. Why ? They dont want you to leave.  Why should they ? They gave you a free blog and what more can you expect.

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Also there is something i need to clarify. I know i keep mentioning blogspot ! I’m not targeting them. I actually am referring to any blog platform that allows you to host a free blog as a sub domain on THEIR site.