In this episode, Joe talks about new motions by Google, moving towards the concept of Angie’s list, for local businesses.
Joe: Welcome back to the Being Found show where apparently everyone loves Chauncy. I think I may have to start saying I’m the co-host.
Chauncey: It’s just because I’m so cool and so youthful and hip. So, many people don’t know this but I skateboard to this radio show.
Joe: Well I’ve seen your hybrid car. So my mother texted me during the show to let me know she’s here and listening which I think is wonderful. And of course, I expect you to be listening to Mom. But then right after that, she said she loves Chauncey.
Chauncey: “Hi Joe, I love Chauncey.” I love Mrs. Joe’s mom.
Joe: It is crazy how much news is going on with Google. You know last show we talked about how, you know, generally local businesses at least the ones we run into are somewhere around five to eight years behind and how the Internet is impacting their business and that’s just the truth. And we know it because we can see the specific changes being made on the Internet that was made for better or worse to try to make the consumer happier and be able to get what they want. So you know it gets really easy to think that those changes only come every year to two.
Chauncey: Yes. It is such an active environment of what’s going on in the Internet.
Joe: And earlier you had a good point Chauncey that I think sometimes we think of Google and search engines as kind of like our utility like we think of our power company or phone company that there’s a certain amount that is expected.
Chauncey: It’s practically a commodity now to society. I mean if it were to go down we would have some problems. It’s not like there would be no societal repercussions you know.
Joe: Yeah we’ve run it at the same time. These websites like Google exist in an environment where they can change and test and try new things and because they’re a business they’re going to. Just as if your business could test and try things and you had billions of dollars to do it, you would too.
So when I was preparing for the show and I was going over the news and topics that I knew we had to cover it just reminded me that these monsters out there and by monsters I mean Google, Bing, and Amazon, they have the resources to change and adjust their business model. And so what do they do, they change or adjust all the time daily. And so there’s tons of news. One of them I feel a little silly. I didn’t even know about this. Maybe you did, Chauncey, because everybody loves you. You probably do.
Chauncey: I’ll lie if I don’t but go ahead.
Joe: OK, so did you know, Google’s been testing something that’s really quite similar to Angie’s List? Google has been testing it in the Bay Area and they just moved it out to 17 cities? There are actually two articles I want to go over here.
If you’re a plumber or something like that you can be guaranteed by Google. Essentially you go through a background check, they verify who you are and all that. Then, when you run your ads or you’re showing up in Google you get this little badge that shows you’re guaranteed by Google. Not only that, there’s an application that comes with this that allows you to book appointments and follow up with those appointments. All kinds of things are going on. Well, they’ve been testing this in the Bay Area. And now it’s it’s moving out.
Chauncey: I know that this fits into what we’ve been talking about. And it also fits in with Google’s argument of net neutrality and stuff like this. So Google is trying to make their website autonomous. Basically your website will matter for branding, for social media, for all sorts of conversion but eventually, somebody who goes to Google and searches will maybe never hit your website.
Joe: Well they already don’t have to you know it’s funny you say that because you know, I’m an analytics junkie so I look at everything. And so if I’m watching a client’s site and I see a dip that I can’t explain in traffic or conversion I go looking. And one of the things I’ve seen over the last couple of months is that dip tends to be related to “Google My Business” activities. So someone ended up not even making it to the website and they called her, got directions right from the Google results page and I don’t know that that’s a bad thing for a business. I think if I’m a business you know I’m thinking, hey, the more the merrier.
Chauncey: I think it’s irrelevant to your business you’re not a website builder and you’re not a website company. It might matter to you and me, but if I’m a carpet cleaner or a lawyer I don’t see why it matters to me as long as the phones ring and people are giving me money.
Joe: So yeah. It’s interesting. So that’s one, but then in another article that came out today on Search Engine Land , they actually have changed the branding name from Google Home Services to Local Services by Google. Which pretty much everyone’s assuming that is so that they can go from plumbers and contractors to all local business. If I’m going to have people come to my home and do some sort of work, I want them verified. I want to know that it’s not some shady guy.
And you know a lot of the talk is there are some questions of how many businesses can they add when there’s this process they have to go through to designate you are a guaranteed business. You know they do a background check. They verify your certificates. They verify your address and all these things so I don’t know how fast they can expand. I don’t know how soon it will be in Shasta County.
Chauncey: Well long as there’s one for each industry they can expand it because that will immediately create competition for everybody else in that industry as that one company who did it is taking up all the traffic.
People are talking about Local Services by Google
“Find customers when they need you the most. Local Services ads puts trustworthy local electricians, locksmiths, plumbers, and other professionals in front of people who are looking to find and book quickly.” Source ‘Local Services by Google.’
“Local Services allows service-area businesses to appear at the top of search results, making it easier to accept bookings from local clients. In addition to helping local businesses stand out, Local Services ads feature a Google Guarantee badge which lend additional credibility to the business.” Source : Search Engine Journal
“Small businesses all over the U.S. are using Local Services to bring in more calls from new customers who are actively looking to book service providers through the platform. Iftah Sagi, the owner of IVS Security in Atlanta says he gets about eight calls a day from customers that found his business through Local Services.” Source: Google Blog
“Google’s Guarantee Badge promises to put trustworthy electricians, locksmiths, plumbers and other professionals in front of people who are looking to find and book quickly.
It’s called “Local Services,” and it could be a game changer for consumers as well as business.” Source: NBC5
“ Background checks are required for all businesses that want badges. All employees of the business who serve customers at their homes must also complete the background check. Businesses have to meet all state and local license requirements. They also need general liability insurance to qualify for the Google Guarantee. License numbers and proof of insurance are required as well.” Source: NBC5
Joe: I think it’s a lot of the reason we do this show. I don’t know if I’d even say we have the time to be looking into all this stuff because I don’t know that we do. Like you said we spend our nights and weekends for the most part researching and trying to keep up. And so if we have the time, we take the time and local businesses are busy doing the same things for their business. They’ve got to keep up with products and they’ve got to keep up employees and H.R. laws and all that.
The idea of this show is we’re trying to get into the regular business world the information that they need to know. One of the big things I would like to be really clear about is this particular news is changing all the time. This is refining and changing. You can’t just sit back and let this stuff happen without being in the game. We’ll talk about Project Hometown later because that’s one of the big things.
OK, thank you for listening to the Being Found Show.
