Last week, Google announced a new search feature called “nearby.” With this new button, people will be able to search for your business without even typing in a location. They can type in “tow truck,”  hit the “nearby” link and Google will deliver search results for the top tow truck companies near where the searcher is. (Pretty handy if you’re stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the night.)

Does this mean keyword research is irrelevant? No! It means you need to pay even more attention to the most effective keywords relating to your industry because the location keywords have just been taken out of the equation (at least for people using the “nearby” feature.)

The jury is still out on whether “nearby” will catch on. But the fact that Google is paying so much attention to local search features means they have some pretty convincing evidence that it’s important. If the Big G is paying attention, you should too.

In case you’d like to see “nearby” in more detail, here’s the official launch announcement.

Anytime anyone finds something negative about your business, it’s a huge problem. You’re not going to get a second chance to make a first impression.  And these days, there are so many places for people to leave reviews about your business. You may think no one reads them, but they matter.

Google knows those reviews are out there, and when your business comes up in Local Search, it will add them in. That’s great if the reviews are good, but increasingly we’re finding bad reviews popping up.

The worst part is the business owners probably don’t even know about them.

Here are some titles of real reviews for some businesses we’ve looked at (business names won’t be mentioned. They’re suffering enough.)

“LIARS, THIEVES & RACISTS”

“SCAM SCAM SCAM”

“PERMANENTLY CLOSED”

Not only were the titles extremely negative, the reviews gave an “alternate” business for people to go check out. So, basically, some other business was stealing traffic. This could be happening to you—without your knowledge.

Google pulls reviews from lots of different places—travel websites, publications, forums, etc.  And they don’t verify anything in those reviews. Frankly, it’s up to you to make sure the reviews don’t damage your business.

So what can you do about bad reviews on Google?

The process for getting these terrible reviews taken down is lengthy and not very reliable. How much money will you lose while you’re arguing with Google about a bad review?

It’s far easier to push the bad reviews down to the bottom of the stack, so they’re less likely to be read.  The more positive reviews you have, the less weight the negative ones will have with potential customers.

You push the bad reviews down by having a large number of positive reviews on hand to post to your local listing regularly.

Here’s how to use reviews to your advantage:

1) Monitor your business name on local search and social media and the web. Make sure you know when a bad review shows up anywhere.

2) When you do get a bad review, try to address the issue with the customer. (That’s assuming it’s a legitimate issue with an actual customer. Sometimes people post bad reviews “for fun” or to steer traffic to their own businesses.)

3) Immediately post more positive reviews to push the bad review down the list. You’ll need to have testimonials ready to go, so you don’t waste valuable time.
So if you don’t gather testimonials from your customers already, start doing it. We’re in the Recommendation Age now. People trust the opinions of others and rely on reviews to help them decide whether or not to buy. It’s up to you to make sure they get accurate information when making those decisions.

And even if you don’t think you have any bad reviews anywhere on the web, Google your business name frequently to be sure!

When people finally decide their standard Yellow Pages ad isn’t worth the money anymore, they’ll often be sold a listing for some online version of the same book. After all, it’s an online listing. So, that must be better, right?
Wrong.

The trouble with Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) is they suffer from the same old clunky format. You still have to search through listings to find the one you want. You may or may not get any additional information about the business you’re looking for.  There are still lots of other competing listings. Because IYPs are still in directory format, they are still one of the last places people will look when searching for a local business.

A local search listing, on the other hand, presents the closest relevant matches geographically. If you’re looking for a “steak house” in “Atlanta, GA” –Google Maps gives you several to choose from. But they also give you photos, videos, menu options, phone numbers, driving directions, reviews and a host of other information. All this information is easy to read, even on a small cell phone screen.

So far, local search is in the lead.  But what about getting your business listed?

IYPs count on the fact that everyone knows what the “yellow pages” are. So, they figure if they add the Internet into the mix, everyone will just fall in line and use it like the old days. (And advertisers will pay for it, like the old days.) But that’s not the case.

IYPs fail to bring the same experience as local search, but they also fail to work at optimizing their directory listings. In other words, when you type “steak house Atlanta” into a search engine, it’s highly unlikely a IYP directory will show up on the first page (or even the top 3 pages) of the search results.  That’s because they have to work hard and continually adapt to search engine optimization strategies in order to achieve a page one ranking.

Google’s Local Search Box shows up at the very top of page one. It’s the first thing people see, and very often the first place they click. In fact, comScore research shows that 82% of local searchers will follow-up their search with a phone call or in-person visit to the best listing they see. (That’s why it’s so important to SHOW UP and STAND OUT on page one.)

Whether you do it yourself, or hire an affordable company like us to handle the details, don’t delay getting your local listing.