Marching to the Beat of the Drummer

Google continues to call the shots on local search marketing.  After most of you were finally getting comfortable with the mechanics of marketing your dental practice using a Google Places listing, Google has changed the rules–again!!  Less than two weeks ago–with no advance warning–Google introduced Google+Local, and literally overnight about 80 million Google Places Pages were replaced by Google+Local Pages. Google Places, the brand, has migrated to Google+Local, lending itself to more social interactions through Google+Pages. Most of the features you’ve grown accustomed to will remain, including the Places dashboard where you can upload photos, add contact information, and post-patient reviews. All current reviews that you have worked so hard to acquire will also transfer. Good news there.

But Google completely changed up its review system with a two component rating scale developed by Zagat (Google acquired Zagat about eight months ago). First–the individual review rating which previously was based on five stars is now based on a scale of 0-3: 0=Poor;1=Good;2=Very Good; and 3=Excellent. The most noticeable difference is the way that your reviews appear. Each individual review will now also display the full username associated with the Google account of the reviewer. This change should help reduce the number of spam reviews and also the reviews by persons attempting to damage the reputation of a legitimate business. The second piece of the  new rating system is the overall score which is now a composite score of 30 possible points. This breaks down in the following way: 0-10=Poor; 11-15=Fair to Good; 16-20=Good to Very Good; 21-25=Very Good to Excellent; and 26-30=Extraordinary to perfection. Also under this new system, reviews that Google has identified as helpful–both positive and negative–will remain closer to the top of all the reviews posted – despite their age. Under the old system, reviews were listed in the order they were posted.

I would offer three suggestions. First–continue to solicit quality reviews from your patients. They are more important than ever to the success of your business with this new system of local ratings. Second–contact your Webmaster immediately to help you to set up a Google+Business Page. Every business will be forced to have a Google+Business Page (just like Google Places). You may choose to wait and Google will create one for you, but I would suggest creating one now using the same email address as the Places listing. Third -be sure to have your webmaster  install a Google button on your website that encourages patients to leave reviews (here is the link to mine), and make sure that it is linked correctly to the new Google+Local Page where reviews can be written.