New emails from Google Places?

[Jamie Steigerwald]

I have never received these before from Google Places. Today I received 2 with a slightly different format. I am wondering if anyone has received them before and if the 2 email are an indication of some type of dupe.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hmmm, Jamie. Thanks for sharing. This is new I think.

A long time ago (Long time in Google years, like maybe 2 - 3 years ago) Google would email you an analytics overview report. I thought it was really smart and likely served to help keep the Place page more top of mind for SMBs. Of course as you see in these 2 it's also a great way for them to try to sell Adwords.

As far as the 2 different versions go and a possible dupe, I don't know. If you click links in both emails while logged into the account does it take you to the right dash?

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

I was logged in to multiple accounts and when clicking on the link it brought me the dashboard of the man Google account. I logged out of everything else and yes, it brings me to the correct account, but that maybe because they are just using a generic link.

I have one account that has 2 businesses in it. If I receive the email for those as well I can test if the links are specific or generic.

In looking at the emails closely it appears that are just testing format.

 

[mborgelt]

The fact that the two emails your received share the exact same numbers, I don't think its referring to two separate listings. maybe its from verifying in Google Places and then Converting to Google + Business?

As far as duplicates, I looked into your listing, and could not immediately identify any duplicates for your listing, so i think you are OK on that end!

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

That is true, the listing was initially created with the old dashboard then updated.

Regarding he dupe issue, thanks for checking it out. I am still trying to figure out why the listing ranks so low when searching for the primary keywords when it ranks better then 5 out of 7 in the pack organically.

Cheers!

 

[Linda Buquet]

There is a fairly new algo at play that makes no logical sense to me!

I think it's factoring in something new but I can't figure out what's in control.

Maddening!

For example - in another thread someone brought up today.

Google: Westborough plumber. There are several other plumbers in that cluster of small towns. Why does Google out of all of them, award Assured Service with the C spot? It's in a different town. Further away then some other plumbers. AND it does not even have Westborough on the site. Does not even have the city it's IN on the home page. I checked some citations and stuff but didn't check backlink anchors. But I suspect if we could figure out why this one ranks it would give us a piece of the puzzle on this new algo.

 

[Jamie Steigerwald]

I agree with you it is maddening! I am hoping for my client that if we just continue to put forth best practices it will win out in the end. Until then PPC and some long tail keywords are doing the trick.

I think there are a number of examples like that one you have above where the results are not in the best interests of the searcher. Hopefully this and Yahoo doing a push into local will encourage Google to "fix" the new algorithm sooner then later.