Anyone managed to change 'At a glance:' in local search results

[DeanAndrews]

On Google's local search results, i.e when the 'Google places' data is displayed along with the map on the right hand side of the search results, there is also an element 'At a glance:'
The data that if being displayed is from some years ago and the client would if possible like it to reflect there current services, which they have been providing for some five years.

According to Google support here - http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1344353 this cannot be changed, they say

'Can I edit a listing’s descriptive terms or suggest a new one?
No; the terms are not reviewed, curated, or edited. They come from an algorithm, and we do not help that algorithm figure it out. '

My question is has anyone successfully influenced this data and if so how.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi CodingStuff,

Good question, and I empathize with frustration on this. The At A Glance feature often points up the most absurd snippets. You can report the issue through this form:

http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs

....but, Google will apparently only consider changing it if it contains totally wrong information (like jewelry appearing on a restaurant listing) and even then, it's unlikely to see action happen on their part. So, this leaves us with trying to understand the cause/source of these snippet sentiments. Mike Blumenthal wrote a great post on this in 2011 when these first appeared:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/30/google-places-descriptor-snippets/

In that post, he points to a Bill Slawski piece on a patent that appears to relate to this sentiment display:

http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/08/google-boost-search-rankings-category/

And here's a good discussion on this topic in Google's forum:

http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/business/wDRAXAl1gyA

The sources of the snippets have appeared to stem mainly from reviews, but also from links and website content. Usually, it's pretty easy to trace language in the snippets to things that have been said in reviews, at least in my experience. So, here we come to another hands-are-a-bit tied situation, because you aren't able to control what people say in their reviews. Even one bad review can end up tacking an awful sentiment to your profile in the At A Glance section.

I have never seen research done on how often Google internally refreshes At A Glance sentiments, but it stands to reason that the acquisition of a gentle but ongoing stream of positive reviews for the business would be the strongest action one can take to hope to see a change in the sentiments. Without seeing your actual profile, I have to speak broadly on this, but that would be my basic advice. You can make an effort to report the issue to Google and there is a slim chance you might get somewhere with that, but in most cases, you'll just have to work at getting reviews in hopes of seeing an eventual change to the snippets.

For good recent reading about the topic of getting Google-based reviews, here's another piece by Mike Blumenthal that you may find helpful:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/09/24/asking-for-reviews-post-apocalypse/

I hope these resources help you feel up-to-speed on this sometimes frustrating topic. Good luck!

[DeanAndrews]

Hi Miriam

Thank you for your comprehensive answer. I will look at the resources that you have provided and perhaps conduct some tests of my own.

Once again, thank you.

[MiriamEllis]

You are very welcome. My pleasure to help!