Google plus?

[Snakeman]

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John W,
in the thread “Jump in rankings from few changes” you made a passing mention of Google Plus.
Now this is purely speculative, but do you see a likelihood of it being dumped or alternatively overhauled?
All the best

[JohnW]

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Hi Snakeman,
I can’t begin to guess what will happen with Google Plus (“Google Places”, “Google Business” or its other names).

I can tell you that it has had a long history of problems and it seems that Google would dearly like it to succeed.

G has overhauled this system many times in its attempt to make it more valuable.

A very subjective opinion…

I think what is killing it is:

• It’s data base of business contact details listings is terribly out of date and inaccurate.
• There have been so many world-wide listing and “G+ marketing services” scamming it
• There are too few REAL business reviews of Places businesses
• It can only handle very limited business category searches
• Most small business owners are not interested in listing with it

IMHO, G has been desperately trying to encourage user generated content because it can’t generate content itself in a world-wide environment. So far it seems to be failing.

Can it turn this around? BTHOOM. (Beats the hell out of me.)

IMHO, this is one of Google’s biggest Achilles’ heel.
Regs,
JohnW

[Snakeman]

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Thanks as always for your inspired and well qualified response.
All the best

[MissSassy]

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I really like Google+, there are some great people on there and great communities too.

Who knows what Google will or wont do but you have to decide if it is worthwhile for your business and that you will have the time to regularly post and interact.

PS: Reptiles are amazing

[JohnW]

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MissSassy, post: 208633 wrote:

I really like Google+, there are some great people on there and great communities too.

Who knows what Google will or wont do but you have to decide if it is worthwhile for your business and that you will have the time to regularly post and interact.
Hi Kelly,
I was really thinking about Google Places/Business when I replied above.

If I remember correctly Snakeman started this thread following another’s comments on Google Places and my mind was still on that thread.

Google Plus is different. It does seem to have very different demographics to Facebook and it does seems to be struggling with growing an active user base.

There are many articles published about G+ and Fb like this one:

Nov 14: “Google+ Demographics for 2014 and 2015“

Some quotes:

“Google+ is only useful for a certain type of audience”

“Despite the large number of users registered on Google+ (1 billion*), it still commands a tiny fraction of social network time per month”

“…While Facebook users average 21 minutes per day, Google+ users average 6 minutes per month …that is, 12 seconds per day.

So should you use Google+ for your business? We can’t answer that question for you, but it pays to look at the usage data and the demographics.”

(* I understand that everyone with a Gmail address is a registered G+ user whether they post on G+ or not?

I suggest the last piece of advice be applied to all social media.

PS Since the article was published, G has stopped giving prominence to author’s pics in SERPs so this statement has been superseded, “Google authorship, for instance, clearly gave prominence in search results to those with Google+ accounts…”

Regs,
JohnW

[MissSassy]

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It is all now Google my Business and you can post updates or news which appears to your Google + followers. Naturally it is like any other social media, if you are not going to interact with it, there is little point in having it.

According to Google: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038166?hl=en
If you previously used Google Places for Business or Google+ Pages dashboard to manage your business information, you’ve likely noticed that your account has been automatically upgraded to Google My Business dashboard. Google My Business makes it simpler than ever to make sure your local business information can be easily found across Google, including on Google Maps, Google Search, and Google+.

[MichaelDigital]

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The thing about consulting ‘experts’ is that they have strong opinions, they are often intellectually vain and quite often become irrelevant as a result due to being inflexible and unwilling to learn anything new.
Google+ is alive and well, it is owned by Google, the largest internet company in the world. Because a lot of Australian businesses are unaware of it and don;t understand how it works, some commentators like to put about that it is somehow ‘in extremis’ – it is not.
In America, Canada, the U.K & Europe Google+ is a primary focus for local businesses, they are aware that if they have up to date, accurate citations (business details) on G+ and their business appears on Google local maps their business has a great chance of being included in the 6/7 pack – that group of listings that appears at the top of search pages for local businesses – their presence will be boosted and the foundations of their SEO project are cemented. The social dimension of G+ is not as vast as Facebook, or the other large social media platforms, but that is not really its function, or reason for being. Australian business would be well advised to take G+ very seriously. That is all i am saying at this point, it is up to you if you accept what i say, but i would observe, quietly what business does over seas – Australia is a tiny minnow on the global market, do you think Google is bothered whether we ‘like Google plus’ or not?

[JohnW]

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thorn, post: 210130 wrote:

Google+ is alive and well, it is owned by Google, the largest internet company in the world. Because a lot of Australian businesses are unaware of it and don;t understand how it works, some commentators like to put about that it is somehow ‘in extremis’ – it is not…

Australian business would be well advised to take G+ very seriously…

…do you think Google is bothered whether we ‘like Google plus’ or not?
Hi Thorn,
I don’t think anyone here expects G to take any notice of this discussion.

I certainly recommend that businesses claim their Google+ (Local/Maps/Local Business Center/Places/My business/etc.) listing and ensure it is accurate.

I’m so POed because the biggest Internet company in the world has not been able to get its business directory accurate since 2004.

You might like to read this:

A Brief History of Google Places

It covers 2004 – 2012. Check out the red “News Items” column for some of the spam reports.

There are whole business categories that G has had to delete world-wide then reinstate and maybe delete again for their wide-spread misuse/abuse. I can name:

locksmiths
advertising agencies
web designers/developers
SEO consultants

(FS discussed these missing Places categories on 24 Jun 11 and 23 May 11)

If you are referring to G+ as a social media platform, that is an entirely different topic. It is useful to communicate with certain demographics.
Regs,
JohnW

[MichaelDigital]

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JohnW, post: 210143 wrote:

Hi Thorn,
I don’t think anyone here expects G to take any notice of this discussion.

I certainly recommend that businesses claim their Google+ (Local/Maps/Local Business Center/Places/My business/etc.) listing and ensure it is accurate.

I’m so POed because the biggest Internet company in the world has not been able to get its business directory accurate since 2004.

You might like to read this:

A Brief History of Google Places

It covers 2004 – 2012. Check out the red “News Items” column for some of the spam reports.

There are whole business categories that G has had to delete world-wide then reinstate and maybe delete again for their wide-spread misuse/abuse. I can name:

locksmiths
advertising agencies
web designers/developers
SEO consultants

(FS discussed these missing Places categories on 24 Jun 11 and 23 May 11)

If you are referring to G+ as a social media platform, that is an entirely different topic. It is useful to communicate with certain demographics.
Regs,
JohnW

Yes, being the global ‘almost monopoly’ they are also the self styled police force of internet commerce-since their search results have become central to a lot of business. If I had my way there would many ‘Googles’ and maybe the future will look different-it is after all still pretty early days for our global network, 20 years is nothing. I suppose we will have to wrestle with the mighty gorilla for a while yet

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