23 April 09 Update : See also my Google Map Spam Update blog posting.

Google Maps is a powerful marketing tool for small businesses in the UK – but it is being hijacked by unscrupulous SEO companies in the UK.

Map spam is a black hat technique used that manoeuvres inappropriate listings to the top of the map listings results. The best known examples of map spam are the infamous Locksmiths of New York and it has also plagued other industries.

Here in the UK I’m seeing more and more examples of map spam.  I’d like to discuss one example: the accommodation industry, targeting small businesses providing guest house, or bed and breakfast.  This is a particularly despicable scam in that they are targeting a business sector that has one of lowest adoption rates of Internet technologies, and yet operates in one of the most competitive markets.

Google should hurry up and fix this problem. It has a special responsibility to provide trustworthy results to an unsuspecting audience.  It has undertaken the role of developing a business directory, knocking services like Yell out of the picture.  And now it is delivering results that are untrustworthy, and putting small businesses in the position that they feel they have no choice but to give in to the demands of these cowboys.

If you were to go and search for a bed and breakfast in Mablethorpe, you will find the top 10 Google Maps listings clogged up with 3  false listings, creating spam records that read “YOUR B&B can be HERE” – and offering to blackmail the owner of a genuine business that rightfully deserves to have that listing for free.

If you were then to go to Google Maps and search for his marketing strap line YOUR B&B can be HERE you’ll find these cowboys are operating around the whole of the UK, targeting everywhere from Glastonbury to Lincoln, Liverpool to Portsmouth.  There are 9 pages of these results, and they are even spreading their tendrils into France.

It’s not just B&B’s – they are targeting estate agencies, dog trainers, limousine hire companies, perhaps even businesses like yours.

You can report Google Map spam here.

And finally, we can see a trail of damage they have left behind, selling these entries to unsuspecting small businesses, who no doubt will have their listing removed once Google pulls its finger out.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day – an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.

Ada Lovelace was a mathemematician and contemporary of Charles Babbage.  Babbage is credited with the inventing the Analytical Engine, or the first “computer.”  Lovelace first met Babbage in 1833, and later she wrote a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers, or the first computer software.

But what I want to celebrate is her Nottinghamshire roots.  Ada was the daughter of Lord Byron, and her grave is next to Byron’s just a few miles from here in Hucknall. She is a wonderful part of Nottinghamshire’s history, and an extraodinary part of the history of the computing.

Ada Lovelace day is about celebrating women’s achievements in technology- and I’ve chosen to highlight my experiences at Nottingham Trent University working as part of what was the NTU Computer Services team. I was working with a talented group of women, whom I want to acknowledge today:

• Carys Thomas – Assistant Director (Service Strategy) Computing Services, Loughborough University
• Stevie Vanhegan – Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Nottingham Trent University
• Julie Plumb – Head of Web Development at Nottingham Trent
• Alison McNab – HEA-ICS ILS Coordinator at Loughborough University

Google has produced a very useful video discussing exactly how the AdWords auction process works.

Hal Varian, AdWords Chief Economist, is like your favourite uncle sitting down and calmly explaining why there really is no need to be worried about AdWords, and this is exactly how it works.

Designed for folk who might be new to Pay Per Click, I reckon even experienced PPC marketers should settle down and relax for the 9 minutes and 12 seconds it takes to Hal to explain how ads are ranked, how prices are calculated, and how your bid price and Quality Score influence how much you pay per click.

Learn more at the Google AdWords blog

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I’ve just noticed that Google AdWords is displaying advertisers’ favicons alongside the destination URL in the Google search results.

Here’s what I’m seeing:

Taking a look at the source of the favicon images being dispalyed in the search results, they are .png files that are being stored at:

http://www.gstatic.com/ads/images/favicons/

At this stage, not all ads have a favicon displaying.  Travelodge gets it’s favicon displayed, but Lastminute.com doesn’t.

It’s not a question of whether the site has a favicon.ico installed, because these images are .pngs coming from Google’s own archive.

I can’t quite make sense of it yet, but not doubt all will be revealed in due course!

Some more examples:

Update:  they appear to be off again?

Google Checkout is putting up it’s credit  card processing fees – making it virtually identical to PayPal’s fees.

Effective from 5 May 2009, the price hike also eliminates the AdWords fees rebate.

And for those of us receiving payments from outside the UK, then an additional 1% is payable.

The new fee structure:

In their announcement, Google highlights the advantages of using  Checkout in conjunction with the AdWords PPC service:

Advertisers who use Checkout have the opportunity to display the Checkout badge on their ads, which has proven to be an effective way to differentiate ads and attract user interest. Checkout users click on ads 10% more when the ad
displays the Checkout badge and convert 40% more than shoppers who have not used Checkout in the past.

My personal view is that users in the UK are much more familiar and comfortable with PayPal, and the idea of paying via Google feels unnatural, and having to set up a Google account in the process is a barrier.

So, farewell Google Checkout.  The advantage of the cheap fees was compelling, but now it is on par with PayPal or equal to my own bank’s merchant account services, so I think it is time to switch.

Read  more:

Google Checkout Fees (Google Checkout Blog)

A hands-on workshop for businesses wanting to make things happen now

Do you want to learn some great new Internet marketing ideas, and then straight away make it happen for your business?

Do you have lots of good ideas for your website, but lack the time or skills to put your ideas into practice?

Then this is the training day for you.

This is not an awareness raising day.  You are not going to sit and watch PowerPoint slides.

This training day is different.  You are going to have your own computer, and you are going to get things done.  It’s going to be a small group training session, with other interesting business owners like yours.  And you’ll have Susan Hallam right at your side to show you how and to help you over those little stumbling blocks that slow you down or stop you in your tracks.

You will get to choose from 50 new ideas:

• 10 ways to get found in Google
• 10 ways to get more links to your website
• 10 ways to advertise your website for free
• 10 ways to improve your website
• 10 new ways to communicate on the Internet: Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging…

Book Your Place Now

You can pay either by credit card using our secure PayPal service, or book your place via email. Either way, we will send you a VAT invoice.

Who is this course for?

You will be responsible for the marketing of your business, and will be using the Internet as part of your day to day working. You want to learn how you can use the web  to drive your business forward.  And you will know that the Internet is essential to your business success.

You do not need to be a geek;  the workshop has been designed for real business owners who need practical information quickly and in bite-sized chunks.

Dates

Friday, 1 May 2009

Time

09:00- 09:30    Registration
09:30 – 16:00   Course
16:00 – 16:30   Informal Q&A

Venue

PDW Meetings & Training Venue
Colwick Quays Business Park
Nottingham NG4 2JY

Fee

£225 + VAT (payable by credit card or cheque).

Includes use of the classroom computer (you are also welcome to bring along your own laptop), comprehensive course notes, delicious lunch, teas and coffee.

Book your place now

You can pay either by credit card using our secure PayPal service, or book your place via email and we will send you an invoice.

The Workshop Leader

Susan Hallam is Managing Director of Hallam Communications, an Internet marketing training and consultancy company. Susan specialises in making complex topics clear and easy to  understand, and has been delivering search engine optimisation training for more years than she cares to admit.

She is a regular speaker at Internet conferences, including Search Engine Strategies, Search Marketing Expo, Internet World, and the eBusiness Club.

Google confirmed a small update to it’s algorithm that has caused a change in the rankings in the search engine results.  Called “Vince’s Change” this latest update has tweaked the importance of Trust in the search results.

Google wants to display pages in the search results that come from a great site, from sites that are an authority on the subject, from sites that people are talking about, and from sites that people want to link to.

This latest change, of which there are literally hundreds per year, appears to placing greater attributes such as

• Trust
• Authority
• Reputation
• Page Rank
• Quality

This isn’t a radical change at Google, they are always seeking to serve the most appropriate content in their search results, and I wrote about Google’s update that took place in 2005 that  had very similar objectives.

There has been some discussion that “branded” websites seem to be ranking higher as a result.  Personally, I had noticed changes in the search results for some quite specific search phrases, with the top results appearing to be older pages – and it seemed odd because the content ranking well was out of date.

Why would older content be pushing its way to the top?  Think trust.

• older  pages are likely to have more inbound links from other sites
• older pages are likely to come from sites that are an authority in their subject matter, with quality content
• older pages benefit from longevity and reputation

What does this mean for your business?

• Keep getting high quality inbound links from other trust worthy websites. One perfect link is worth more than dozens of low quality links.
• Don’t play games with your online reputation by buying spam links
• Keep generating high quality content, and be an expert in your (keyword) business area

Here is Google’s Matt Cutts commenting on the Vince Update:

Read More:

Getting  Perfect Inbound Links

Understanding Page Rank