Google+ Webinar August 22 – Why You Should Attend
The Rosemont Review recently sat down with our Google Local Expert John Forrest, the host of our upcoming webinar this Wednesday titled Google+ Brand Pages to learn more about his topic.
RR: Google has been making a series of changes this summer to Google business listings, what happened to Google Places?
JF: In July, Google rolled 80 million Places listings into Google+ Local listings to eventually use solely Google+. I am now working on merging our client’s G+Local and Google+ Business pages.
RR: So Google Places no longer exists?
JF: Correct, in the future, all business listings will have their own profile with geographic mapping and reviews on Google+. Any search result for businesses on Google will direct you to their G+ page.
RR: On Wednesday, you are hosting a webinar about this topic, who should attend?
JF: Anyone who would like to know more about the future of your business listings, formerly Google Places, now G+ Local Listings. Also, anyone who hasn’t been on G+ yet and would like a cursory overview of how it works.
RR: How long is the webinar?
JF: The webinar will be 20 minutes with a 10 minute Q&A period, and I encourage all attendees to bring questions so we can have some interactive dialogue. The webinar will begin today, August 22nd at 1 PM/PST.
RR: Why did you choose this topic?
JF: This is my area of focus and I wanted our clients to be aware of these major changes with their business listings. I have been immersed in Google Local daily for the past four years and Google’s recent announcement regarding pushing Local Listings into the G+ platform is the biggest news I have seen in that time as it pertains to Local SEO. These listings are moving targets that need to be managed constantly to prevent any adverse or unfavorable results in the search results.
RR: What will viewers learn from your webinar?
JF: Webinar attendees will learn RM is handling the merge of our clients’ Google+ Pages & Local Listings to ensure that they are set up correctly to allow us to take full advantage of this opporunity. Associating the incorrect Local Listing with the G+ Page could potentially have adverse effects, ie: lost reviews, drop in local search results, creation of more duplicates to fight off etc. So my goal is to educate our clients on what Google is doing and also inform them on how to correctly handle this merge.
This isn’t the end of the changes though, since Google is essentially socializing Local Listings, we can expect many more phased rollouts and updates in a progressive fashion.
RR: Now that Google Places is gone and Apple broke up with Google Maps to use Apple Maps, you will be our new resident expert in these new platforms. How do you feel about everything that is happening?
JF: Lately I’ve been feeling like more of a virtual Columbus trying to navigate all these changes.
RR: That’s one way to look at it, safe travels. We look forward to attending your webinar and learning more about G+, thanks John.
JF: Thank you.