Just before the weekend Google decided to launch a new help center. This time it is one that is well appreciated by small business owners and us local search people. Its a Help resource on how to set up the Local Business Center.
You can find the all new help resource at the following link:
Local Business Center User Guide. Here is that video that was accompanied with it:

the video has been set to private and is no longer available.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

New Help Resource for Local Business Center

It looks like the Local Business Center is tightening its submission policies and some oddities are starting to appear. This is the list so far:

First, the use of too many capitals is being prohibited. The following screenshot shows an example of use of roman numbers and its being classified as ‘overuse’ of capitals. Sounds to me like they are trying to prevent people from leaving on their CAPS LOCK (shoutness level).

Also, the use of too many punctuations is being prohibited, since recently, as we could also tell from the increasing number of posts about this in the google maps group.

I submitted split hours, using the bulk-upload feature. Now when editing that listing manually it starts complaining about overlapping hours.
All days have split hours, except Saturday, where only mornings are available. So Google puts the after hours in 12:00AM till 12:00AM. Trying to save these, will result in the following message (the message about repeated punctuation applies to the previous example):

Another one; interesting one actually! Is this a translation error or does this mean that Google is working on something in the future to enable verification by email? Notice the term ‘correo electrónico’ which is Spanish for email. Clicking it however, results in a regular mail verification method.

Have you been noticing other oddities or strange behavior of the Local Business Center? Please let us know in the comments!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Local Business Center Oddities

• How do I correct my incorrect marker position after I’ve added the listing?
• Where is the bulk upload feature of images like requested here
• The maps overlay in the LBc doesn’t seem to be working in Safari (for windows, or is my system just buggin? )
• Why is this still not available in Europe ??? (including the free category selection!)
• While using this interface I wasn’t asked to re-enter my PIN for my listings, maybe this is because I use bulk-upload instead of manual verification?

Also while trying to delete a listing I was presented with the following screen, which I’m a bit puzzled about, because will Google Maps remove your listings and those from trusted sources if you want them to? What about

“To geographically organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Or is this the useful part?

Here’s the screenshot btw (click to enlarge) :

Also, I must note that I really like the ‘verified local submitter’ idea in a comment from AmhedF back at Mike’s blog. Especially for agencies or people monitoring large accounts, it’s unbearable and a real pain having to re-verify and re-enter those PIN’s for all of your listings. There should be a better and more efficient way to fight map spam.

Update: Seems like they are having some problems using bulk-uploads in the new interface. In the meanwhile, people in desperate need of getting their business listings online use the bulk upload feature can use the work around I mentioned at Mike’s post about this at his blog:

“change the &gl parameter and/or domain to a european one, you can keep the hl in your prefered language“

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Pain and hassles new Google Local Business Center

Setting up your account and adding business locations is really easy, that is, if it’s only a few.

What happens when adding multiple listings using the bulk-upload method? For me this is the preferred method. It’s lightning fast, it tells you which errors to correct (if any) and you see your business listings appearing in a jiffy. Waiting for approval (takes up 2-6 weeks or even more).

So what’s the problem? Well, we want to flavour it up a bit. Add some pictures & videos. But where is the bulk upload feature for this thing? I want to have a branded icon or my company logo added to all the 200 listings I just uploaded using the bulk-upload feature. Not possible! So the next few hours you are busy doing hard labour work, manually adding images and videos per business location using an almost antique photo upload system. Where is the usability on this one Google? It might be good to pay some attention to the local business center.
Suggestion: just add some fields to the upload form with img src destinations to be used.

Instead of adding new features, try to improve the ones that already exist. Speaking of which, when is that category updating coming in Europe?

So hereby, I’m compiling a list of features I would like to see or updated in the Local Business Center.

the list of updates:

• category update (in Europe!)
• Interface redesign / usability upgrade
• Photo upload form
• Bulk-upload photos / videos
• statistics (define impressions / views ) , integrate with Google Analytics!
• insight in (trusted) sources used to gather my information (so I can contact them if something is wrong/missing or incomplete! )
• history on status of business listing (pending, awaiting approval, flagged, awaiting next update, marked as inappropriate, etc )

Feel free to leave a comment if you think something is missing!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Updates on Google Local Business Center – What would you like to see?