As part of catching up with writing I wanted to mention something that Google has launched since beginning of march. GA-IQ is a test, for people who use Google Analytics. You can take an individual test to set a score and receive a certificate from Google when qualified. The test is mainly focused on implementation, measuring campaigns and usage of reports. Because interpretation of the data must always be done by humans there is a strong responsability for people working with Analytics data.

Google has put up a new website with learning material, both in written text and screencasts. Learn more about this by visiting the conversion university website.
In order to pass the test you need a minimum score of 75%. I can hereby notify you that I passed the test with a score of 92%.

Do you think you are also up for it? Take the test here.
When finished (or when you decide not to take the test) try and see if you are up for tracking some of your local campaigns using Google Analytics. I wrote an article called ‘Tracking Local Search traffic using Analytics‘ on Mike Blumenthal’s blog.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Google Analytics Individual Qualification

Yesterday I was reading the Google Maps help groups for business owners, and a question was raised if it was Okay with Google to submit (self contained) accommodations to the Local Business Center.

we’re an accommodation
provider with over 150 self contained holiday listings. We’d like each
of these properties to appear on the local business center maps but I
want to be sure we aren’t spamming.

I think the question was a good one,  just to be sure that you are not spamming Google Maps.  Maps Guide Jen responded that you are free to go as long as the accommodations all have a physical address, andyou are the representative. Although they are not being validated by regular mail. They do go through the stages of bulk upload though, which means that the listings are not activated right away, but it might take up to several weeks.

Although this might have been obvious, for me this was always a shady grey area, because if you are a representative, you are not the actual business owner but a caretaker of multiple individual listings.

So this opens up opportunities for travel agencies, rental apartments, holiday housing providers, ferienwohnungen, bed & breakfasts, etc. who are representing these business locations and want to be visibile in the local search engines and thus increasing traffic.

If you upload your data to Google Maps using the LBC and want to include a URL to that listing, make sure you deeplink it to the property URL! It looks less like spam, and hey, it increases the conversion rate!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Local SEO in Travel