Heads up on new Google Local Guidelines

[MiriamEllis]

Good Morning All!

I'm starting this thread just as a heads-up to all of the super folks in our community who live and breathe Local that Google has just launched one of the bigger overhauls of their quality guidelines that I've seen in some time. I want to be sure no one in our community misses this. Check out:

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

Not only has the title and style of the page undergone a revamp, but don't miss these changes:

• Google abandons the use of descriptors. Now you see 'em, now you don't. I have to say, I knew from day one that these were not going to last and thought they were a terrible feature for maintaining NAP consistency.

• Significant tweaks to Google's explanation of choosing categories, including requiring the use of unique categories for different departments. I thought this was interesting because category differentiation has long been a Local SEO tip for reducing the risk of merging. Now, this practice is a guideline.

• New guidelines for naming practice/practitioner listings

...and a whole lot more! Mike Blumenthal has posted a good little post on the guideline update here:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2014/12/01/google-rolls-out-major-update-to-google-my-business-guidelines/

If you have a minute, check out the changes today, as you may discover you need to make some edits to your Google+ Local pages to be guideline-compliant.

[JVRudnick]

Mikes drill-down is especially apropos of this whole change....do click to see what I mean, eh!

And thanks Miriam - nice nice catch!