It’s Official: Google Now Counts Site Speed As A Ranking Factor

Beware dentists who overload pages with too many pictures, over-sized pictures, flash and tons of javascript.  Google has kept it’s promise: Site speed is now a ranking factor in Google’s algorithm, and is already in place for U.S. searchers.

How does Google measure page speed?  According to this article, the 2 primary factors are:

1. How a page responds to Googlebot
2. Load time as measured by the Google Toolbar

I recommend the rule: say enough to get your point across.  When sites include dozens of before/after pictures, it slows down the page load speed.  Keep it simple.

Google Local Business Center Becomes “Google Places”

On April 19th, Google Local Business Center became Google Places.  According to their press release,

Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages – the way that businesses are being found today – with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google.

To date, Four million businesses have already claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center.

What’s new?

• Service areas: If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve.  And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.

• A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. As of today, we’re rolling out Tags to three new cities — Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. — in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks we’ll also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder, and San Francisco.

• Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading your own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which we’ll use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. We’ve been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site (note: live as of 9pm PDT) for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating.

• Customized QR codes: From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business.

• Favorite Places: We’re doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the US. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.

So, the most interesting new feature, to me, is the $25/mo for paid placement.  Hmm… I don’t know about that one.  Before I make my mind up, I want to see that in action.  Just as interesting though is Google’s offer for free pro photography of the interior of the business.  Who will Google use to come take pictures?  Are they paying them?  Why would a pro photographer do this?  I wonder if in the back of their mind, they are terrified of what Google can do in regards to positioning the photographer’s website in the SERPs?  I can see where this is going- I need to take a step back from the big brother and conspiracy theory that Google is really Skynet.

Is Yelp extorting businesses to advertise?

Interesting article regarding the online review site, Yelp.  This goes to show if you take control of your online reputation,  you shouldn’t have to worry about sites like Yelp.

Critics Prompt Change In Yelp Site’s Reviews

By JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES

Business-review Web site Yelp has altered some of its features in the wake of several lawsuits that accused the company of extorting businesses to advertise.

The company will no longer allow businesses that advertise with Yelp to place their favorite review above other comments. Users, meanwhile, will be able to see reviews that have been removed by Yelp’s “review filter,” which is designed to help prevent business owners from posting malicious reviews of competitors or glowing reviews of their own company.

Three suits filed this year allege that Yelp pressured businesses to advertise and retaliated against companies that didn’t by negatively skewing their ratings. The suits are still pending.

Yelp has denied the allegations and blames them in part on “conspiracy theories” and confusion about Yelp’s system. In a post on its official blog, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote, “Despite our best efforts to educate consumers and the small business community, myths about Yelp have persisted.”

Mr. Stoppelman wrote that the “favorite review” feature “led some people to the wrong conclusions” about how much control advertisers had on their page and that because of this, the feature is being eliminated.

Yelp, which allows users to review local businesses such as restaurants, has been attempting to explain how and why it uses a review filter and recently posted a video on the subject. The site now includes a link to filtered comments at the bottom of the list of reviews on each page. The filtered reviews include those from people with only a couple of reviews to their name and those who write reviews such as “wow, i have been there” or “good.” Some reviews that have been filtered mention other businesses specifically, while others are indistinguishable from many positive reviews already on the site.

In his blog post, Mr. Stoppelman said the change will allow users to see that “Yelp’s review filter works just the same for advertisers and non-advertisers alike.”