****UPDATE****

Apparently the “reviews by a Google user” was a glitch in the system.  My guess it was caused while they were migrating or integrating their databases.  Other glitches on Dec. 7th, 2009 included the same results showing up twice…

But they have seemed to fix that as well.

New to the scene as of Dec. 7th, 2009 are the live results…

Live search only works for "trendy" topics... Does not work for pest control. =(

Yes… just go to google and seach Tiger Woods.  You can see it live right now.

But Google Local Map Results are still struggling with Glitches Galore!

So a few posts ago I noted google expanding its map results to cover service areas of companies that come to you… (i.e. pest control).  But this new roll out still has a long way to go.  Charlotte, for example is showing results for Rock Hill, SC.  And there are even more problems with google maps when trying to sort their listings in Charlotte by customer reviews.  Check out the glitch in google maps for pest control companies when you search Charlotte Pest Control and try filtering by 4 stars or better… Bulwark Exterminating a Charlotte Pest Control Company… 5 stars… not found.  And it’s not just pest control, it’s local Charlotte resturants as well.  4 stars and up…. gives you a 3 star restaurant Bricktop’s Restaurant ‎ but not a 4 star restuarant Jaipur Indian Restaurant

Hmmm…. Hopefully this will all be fixed with the New Year’s update.

See other google glitchs… http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/google-caffeine-and-seo.html

Thanks for everyone’s feedback!

Modified twitter's down for maintenance screen shot.

It’s Cool. I can chill… What Am I freaking Saying?
I’m a vanilla SEO Ice Cream Cone! I can’t Wait! Hurry up MAN.
I’m Melting over here!

Are you getting this? When I search the maps now I am getting a “Review by A google user” instead of the actual user name and a link to the users reviews… Check out the 3 reviewers in this image:

This is a cropped screen shot of the reviews section of a local business listing in google.

What is google maps doing now? Are they trying to hide the reviews? Please help me understand!

I have always found it helpful to click on the users to see what other reviews they have and to make sure they are legit. I trust reviewers that have more than one review and that have both a mix of good reviews and bad reviews… from what I understand google is moving that direction as well.  I believe they are attempting to identify “Super Reviewers” or as they would put it “Trusted Reviewers”.  According to Matt Cutts google is all about determining who they can trust…. and for good reason. But what about your useres that want to see the math worked out… Why hide the reviews?

So its taken me a week to get back to this, but last week my wife participated in Black Friday and the chaos that ensues on that day. My wife loves to shop, and she really likes to shop deals. So I was asking her about the newspaper ads. She was excited about what had been delivered in her newspaper… but she mentioned in passing… “the newspaper did charge me extra for the ads.”

excuse me…. what was that…

The Newspaper Charged the Reader for Black Friday Ads!

“Your kidding me.”

“No. They charged an extra dollar for the extra print.”

“They charged you the reader for more printed ads.”

“Yes. They mailed me a letter about it.”

“AND THEY MAILED YOU A LETTER ABOUT IT? But wait they don’t give you Sunday ads that week, right?”

“Right….???”

So let me break this down for you.  The Arizona Republic charged its loyal reader an extra dollar to send more ads on Thursday. But they did not send Sunday ads… I don’t get it…

Let’s break this decision down… they sent out a letter… that cost a least $.30… to make $.70 off it’s loyal customer because they have to print more.

AREN’T THEY GETTING PAID BY ADVERTISERS FOR THOSE ADS????

So besides the fact that the print is becoming more obsolete as time rolls forward, as consumer I think they are missing the boat here all together.  Sure they just made $700,000 if their readership is a million.  But the abuse they just delivered to their loyal fan base is unheard of.  I personally could care less if I ever say a newspaper on my door or not.  I personally am likely to never visit www.AZxCentriloa.com ever again.  And I will most certainly not give them any links. Enough is enough.

Your a Newspaper! You make money from Advertisers! Charging your readers more money to print more Ads is Black Hat at its worst!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Matt Cutts for fixing your google maps! (Not sure if he deserves all the credit but he was the google employee that reassured me that this would happen).  I must say that I am very optimistic about google maps and the direction they are heading.  Here are a couple of things you may want to be aware of when it comes to the future of google maps:

1st and most important…

Google Map extends to service areas of businesses!

This is the best news I have had all week!  In fact, Matt Cutts and Google will be receiving thanks in my Thanksgivings celebration this week! I had the pleasure of addressing my concern to Matt at Pubcon two weeks ago, thanks to an introduction given by Kate Morris, an SEM Gem.

Matt essentially admitted that google was cleaning up the mess it had accumulated from mining the information that was out there for local search. He assured me that the most recent update in the google maps was that they were now pushing their own information for the map results, not 3rd party info.  I mentioned my concern in that the current maps only showed listings within the actual metro city and that this was not reflective of the service areas of many service companies, (cough “Pest Control companies” cough). Matt assured me that they were aware of this and that they were working to correct this….

Two weeks later I get this…

Phoenix Pest Control Map in Google Maps

So if you notice the map title “Pest Control near Tempe, AZ” … Go through the results and you will notice that the first listing “A” falls right on the town of Tempe.  But “C” Bulwark Exterminating is not within the Tempe city limits… Awwesoooome!

Again… Tempe results show Bulwark Exterminating… not in Tempe… Actual address…

-
Two weeks ago this search would only give results in Tempe.  Now it gives results of companies that service Tempe but don’t fall within Tempe, AZ.  Thank you Google! FYI I have only experienced this phenomenon in the Phoenix area. But I have high hopes that this will roll out to our cities.

2ndly an update for the San Fransisco maps…

Google is currently beta testing their google maps for advertising:

Search done for San Francisco Attorney

Good? … possibly. What if I were already in the top 7, would I get charged for the click? And when they click on the map the sponsored listings no longer show.  The down side I see to this is that the sponsored listings don’t show the reviews. Reviews are huge for CTR.  I would prefer the sponsored list show my reviews and take you to the google review page. But as I have not tested this yet, I really have no constructive input. Just making you aware of what is on the horizon. Great thing about the internet is that you can always test… the bad thing is that you are always testing.

So as always… “The Future is so Bright that I’ve go to wear shades.” (Yes I am singing in my head.)

What a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

The latest from Google says yellow pages are going, going, gone!

Yellow Pages are …

Screen Shot from Google

Google’s suggest search means that these are terms search frequently enough to warrant a “Suggest Search”  True or not if it’s said often enough it becomes reality and the public’s perception is reality.

So what do people think…

yellow pages are dead

yellow pages are dying

and my personal favorite of the bunch… How many yellow pages are there?

But let’s not forget the news papers…

Newspapers are dying too

OUCH….

The online public opinion of newspapers…

News Papers are….

dying, dead, obsolete, doomed, and a waste of time.

Of course they still have a little more life in them when compared to the yellow pages as some think the newspapers are

Important, Not Dead

FYI… every honest marketing expert I know has said that the yellow pages are dying… Most of my yellow page reps left their jobs last year.

Is there still a use for Yellow pages… Absolutely. I still believe in using them as a directory… but I don’t expect the dinosaurs to come back to life.

Top 3 effective uses for yellow pages:

3- A booster seat.

2- Kindling for fires.

1- A way to get chicks if you can ripe it in half.

*Related posts: How does the public search for pest control and how should you spend your marketing dollars?

The google maps section has been one of this year’s best roller coaster rides. At the beginning of the year it seemed that many of the maps were being manipulated and dominated by map spammers. It progressed and the maps became more sophisticated. Then the ride took a huge drop when it became “Too sophisticated”. In an attempt to squash out the bugs in the maps and eliminate the pests, i.e. spammers, the maps began a rampart merging. The following is a story of near tragic results from an inaccurate merger made in the maps…

“Google merged the records for Dr John G Moe and Dr Kenneth Landis and this almost led to a tragic patient outcome this weekend. An emergency room doctor from Kansas tried to contact Dr. Moe to see if a certain drug could be given to our patient. Since the patient was unable to give the ER our phone number, the googled Dr John G Moe. Since Google linked our record, the saw the phone number for Dr Landis and left a message on his answering machine and since he wasn’t on call that weekend, we didn’t learn of the problem until much later. So – how do we get Google to unmerge our records. We share an office – but are not a group practice and do not cross-cover on call? Is there an email address or phone number we can use to get this fixed?”  Ellen

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/maps/thread?tid=6c515a66e1584e5e&hl=en

Today many other map results are doing the same.  Its fair to say that google wants their information to be accurate.  That is why they making the mergers.  But this doesn’t stop the pain of those that are being hurt.

You also have un-mergers happening.  Locations that were accurately merged with review sites like insiderpages.com, that are now split off and forming two listings for the same business, same address, with a few mismatched items,  like one listing with “St.” and the other “Street”.  Or a listing with “Ste” and another with “Suite”, these discrepancies can result in un-mergers.  So mergers and un-mergers can both take their toll.

The other side of this are spammers that are still getting through.  Like when you search for Houston Pest Control in Google, you get a one box for a site that is a listing service for a pest control company… zone profiles.

Google gives a profile page a one box for Houston Pest Control. SEO teams are constantly calling and bombarding PCO's with offers about Local listings on Google. Beware, spammers will be caught. Will the pest control maps ever be right?

Map of interest on Google.  Pest Control Companies with positive reviews.

Is there a happy ending to this story?

Give google some time.  They are very good at what they do.  I am confident that they will get all of this straightened out.  In the meantime, play nice! Just because your competitor has an edge on you doesn’t mean that you should give him a bad review… Like the Dixie Rebel’s review for St. George Pest Control. Funny thing… this little review pushed Bulwark to ask it’s customers for help in fighting the falsehood spread by this review.  The result… 89 positive reviews!

Further, Don’t lie and pad your reviews…  Sorry not going to name pest control companies I am suspicious are doing this, but a little investigation into the reviews and it’s pretty easy to spot a fake.  If you want my opinion on a guy that looks like a fake then post it below and I will give you my scoop.

If you want additional help with google maps then email a friend of mine at tshirtseo (at) yahoo.com

Thanks for visiting and please add your comments!

-Pest Control Austin TX

This just in from WebProNews.

Google will be adding tweets to search results…

Love you guys, but this is a little delayed!  I posted a new website purely for the fun of it… Yes I love my job!… about 3 weeks ago.  Then I tweeted it.  Well the tweet showed up on google long before the website ever did.  And the only location you find a link to this new website is on my tweet.  Check it out… Google BlackShirtSeo.com… By the way… the only thing black about it is the shirt. I bought it purely so I could make a T-Shirt. I am sure it will be one of the most expensive T-Shirts I have ever bought.

Your results will show the actual domain now and then tweet under it.  If you didn’t think Google was interested in your tweets then you are falling behind. Tweets on the other hand, are typically not going to rank well.  They are supplemental to good SEO.  I like twitter, but I would never build my optimization plan centered around Twitter, or Facebook or any other social media.  Including google’s new Wave…  If you haven’t checked into the wave then go read up on it by someone who’s taking a test drive on it now… GOOGLE WAVE.

With that said, YES YOU SHOULD TWEET.  NO YOU SHOULD NOT SPAM TWITTER.

Tweet Tweet, but please be Sweet…

PEST CONTROLLERS- Don’t just send out endless ads about your company.  You won’t make many friends on twitter that way.

I hate to bring up past experiences that I would rather forget, but I can’t ignore the lessons I have learned.  I once was involved in a MLM – Marketing Pyramid.  I tried to sell everyone I knew and everyone I didn’t know.  Perhaps it was just my leadership who told me to go steal hourly employees from the mall, but I chased people away.  I looked at everyone as if they were money bags.  That is absolutely a horrible thing to do.  I have since repented… I was very young and naive at the time…. sorry making excuses… I told you I didn’t like to bring up the past!

Morale of the story, Don’t just tweet to sell your service.  Tweet to connect and communicate.  Sure, I support sending out a reminder on occasion about what you do, but every 5 minutes is not an occasion.

… If I could only control the pests on twitter.  =)

-Thos003

Phoenix Pest Controller for hire.

Google has been undergoing a lot of face lifts recently.  As of date, google’s 2009 maps addition have made a huge impact on search results and overall website traffic.  The maps are stealing some if not most of the spot light for many searches.  And if you haven’t caught this google wave then built your ship and get on board.

What’s new as of today, is that the coveted “10 box” or “pack 10″ for local searches is now down to 7!

That’s right, you will find only 7 local companies now when you search for “Pest Control Austin AZ“…   Let’s try again 7-box when you search for “Pest Control Mesa AZ“. Just barely above the cut on that one…

The new limit is 7! Which may not be a big deal,… unless you were 8, 9, 0r 10.  That is just the way google crumbles.

Wait, your not seeing what I am seeing in your results?

Oh yeah, as of today on 3 separate pieces of equipment from, 3 different IP addresses, I got 3 totally different results.  Google Local Search Results are now popping up everywhere!

Here is a quick tally for www.BulwarkPestControl.com search term “pest control” (of course)…

I-Phone – #19 (used to search this before) Different top placements for 1,2,3…

PC – #19 (used to search this before) Different top placements 1,2,3,…

Blackberry – #13 (Never searched for pest control before) Similar top 1,2,3, as I-phone different than PC.

GOOGLE!!!! Quit changing my results!

Oh, and as far as the maps go… If you put in your location, or let it locate you through your IP address it will give you map results based on proximity.  If my IP is in Raleigh, NC… it gives me a different 10, I mean 7, on the map results.  If I change my location to a zip code it changes, if I change my location to a city it changes again.  Each time it pulls the listings that are closest to your IP, Zip Code, or City location and the listings that are most relevant to your search.

Soooo, forget optimizing your location for the entire metro area!  Unless, the niche isn’t that competitive. It is internet real estate where value is based on location, location, and location.

Hope this helps!

* Search results will vary based on user, device, browser, IP address, web history, search term, and other undetermined factors, therefore we are not sure what results are typical and make no claims as to testimonials given hereof, or thereof.

** and for my FTC disclaimer… If you consider this a Google review then your wrong. It’s a Google Report, either way Google did not pay me for this.  I am however associated with a pest control company, so if you see a link that says Exterminator Tulsa and it points to a particular website then yes I did that on purpose and yes they pay me to work for them, but, this is kinda not work stuff… so classify it as you wish.  Man I love my job!

P.S. You can optimize for an entire metro as a key word… try “Austin Pest Control”, but google is changing the way people search by adding local results to service terms, like “pest control”.  Why add in my location if google will give me results based on my location?

Interesting read today from Fox news on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  This is something that would effect SEO companies as they are prone to adding links and building blogs to get more traffic.  The FTC has voted to regulate blogging and fine those that are posting product reviews for money.  They believe that these reviews are misleading in that the consumer is unaware if the review is a organic unsolicited review or if the review is paid for by the product company.  Further, many of these sites and reviews sign on as affiliates and receive a commission if the product is bought through their site.

The law will require that bloggers must make it known that they are being paid in a “clear and conspicuous” manner and the law goes into force December 1st, 2009. The law does not require notification for “free” products, meaning if I were to offer you free pest control service in exchange for a review then you are not required to disclose that you are receiving free service. While these regulations may make many bloggers nervous, the FTC says that they intend to target the companies and advertisers.  This actually makes me more nervous as a pest control company.

Let’s say that I am paying an SEO company to build my site and back links.  How can I be sure that the SEO company I hire is adhering to this law?  Who then is responsible, the SEO company or the pest control company?  Further, this law seems very inadequate.  How do you define a “review” of a company or a review of a product?  How will the FTC distinguish between legitimate customers reviewing a product or service versus the paid reviews? And what about blogs that benefit indirectly from their reviews (i.e. Google adsense)?

Or better yet define “clear and conspicuous”. How do I know if this site “clearly and conspicuously” show that I am a Bulwark employee.  Is the facebook profile on the left sufficient or do I need to disclose this in every post?  Beyond that this blog isn’t purely a Bulwark blog, its my own blog and thoughts as well.  Bulwark does not sanction everything written on this blog and I am not really getting paid directly for my content.

Overall, however, I applaud the FTC’s attempt to regulate this gross flood of solicited reviews. It is unfortunate that so many companies and individuals are cashing in on the naive public.  Having worked on the internet for sometime I  spot the propaganda reviews and comments regularly. In fact, there are entire blogs that look like just a single user reviewing everyday products, but in fact are a paid blogger.

As far as I am aware Bulwark has not overstepped these requirements.  But, again, I am unaware of every attempt hired SEO firms have undergone to boost my web presence. Further, I don’t know how they define “clear and conspicuous”.  Hopefully a site that is owned by Bulwark is clear. But, it does sound  like I will need to check in on my SEO team, and I would advise all internet advertisers and business owners to do the same. Don’t get caught with your pants down.

From your Pest Control SEO guy.

This post was not directly paid for by Bulwark Exterminating, however the writter is biased as to which pest control service is the best.