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You may not familiar with, it was only introduced on Jan 10th, it is the addition, some say bias, of Google+ information into the search results. In less than a week, and so far, only in the US, it has turned search engine marketing on its ear. For those who weren’t prepared it could be a disaster, for the early adpters it could be a real boon.
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I was adding some information to a client’s. The client runs a bed and breakfast in a rural setting and I was adding the locations of restaurants and pubs near their location to their Google map. An easy job, if somewhat boring.
Adding this information requires getting the latitude and longitude of each location. An application at itouchmap.com makes this a simple operation. One option is to put in the address and it will spit out the latitude and longitude.
Problem #1 – the two most popular local pubs didn’t have their address prominently displayed on their websites. In one case the address was there, but way down on the page. In the second case the address was not on the Home page – but on a inner page.
Problem #2 – In both cases the addresses was not found in Google maps. They were using a local variant of the street address ‘Island Hyway S.’. Google shows the same road as ‘Island Hyway W.’ (Which is strange since it is to the East of the ‘Inland Island Hyway’. )
To be fair to Google Maps – it will actually find the right address if you enter the closest town. However, it displays the address as ‘Island Hyway W.’.
Should you be a slave to Google Maps? (MapQuest couldn’t find the address at all.) I guess it depends on whether you want you want only local people to find you?
I am planning a vacation for later this year. And, for the first time I am booking the rooms online.
We are flying to London and there are a HUGE number of hotels to choose from. So, I started looking at the review on TripAdvisor. One hotel in particular had a four star rating, was reasonably price, for London, and was near where we wanted to stay. It had a great website looked like exactly what I wanted in a hotel. But was getting hammered in TripAdvisor.
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Is it just me – or is the concept of a ‘Home Page’ becoming passé?
Back in the old days, the last century for those of us using Linux, browsers only had one window. And, when you started your browser it opened up your ‘Home Page’. Fast forward to 2010 and even Internet Explorer has tabs and can restore a session.
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Sometimes support can come from the most unlikely of places. For example, how would you like Steve Jobs to present your business to a global audience?
Sound far fetched.
Source Crowsnest Pass Railway Route
The picture is a little before my time (circa 1953).
I started my working career (1966) in Trail BC at Cominco (now Teck Cominco) as a labourer. The work was dirty and dangerous – but not particularly hard and certainly not intellectually challenging. However, looking back, many of things I learnt there are still relevant. One of the most important was in the field of marketing. Which, at that time, was as far from being one of my career goals as a fish trying to fly.
I was working filling bags of fertilizer at Cominco’s Warfield operation.
OK – I don’t normally listen to MC Hammer. His music has a good beat – but other than that it leaves me flat. But, were he to target the geriatric crowd – I am willing to bet he would do a good job. MC Hammer understands the value of analyzing his target market.
I have Google’s search page as the ‘Home’ page on my web browser. Today (Oct 29, 2009) I was surprised to see Asterix in place of the regular logo. Not thinking too much of it – I just went about my regular daily routine. Later, while listening to the CBC, I heard today was the 50th anniversary of the first Asterix cartoon.
For those of you who have never had the pleasure of reading an Asterix comic you can get reprints of their adventures at the Asterix website. Originally in French, the stories tell how the tiny Gaul, Asterix, with Obelix and his other friends and with the help of the Druid Getafix, took on the might of the Roman army are available in many languages.
UGC – User Generated Content, recently took another big step forward when Etys, an online store front for hand made and vintage articles, turned to its clients for advertising ideas. They ran a contest for 30 second video promoting Etsy. The results, seen at http://tv.etsy.com/, not only capture the spirit of the company but are innovative and entertaining. As Bob Garfield puts it in Ad Age:
The results are positively remarkable. The 10 semi-finalists are as a group better thought-out and realized than any 10 random commercial running on TV anywhere in the world. And a whole lot more charming. As for the three finalists, each is a means of telling the Etsy story in the Etsy-ish of ways.
Don’t Fail the Truth Test
This week my wife and I had a short get-away. There are so many great spots to visit on Vancouver Island, and most are within a two or three hour drive of where we live. For this get-away we chose to go to Port Hardy at the north end of Vancouver Island. And, based largely on their website, we chose to stay at the the Glen Lyon Inn.
Unfortunately, we didn’t book ahead, and they were full by the time we got there.
We May Have Dodged A Bullet
We went back to the Glen Lyon Inn for dinner. The photo of their restaurant http://www.glenlyoninn.com/dining.html) on the website showed a relatively ‘up scale’ restaurant, with fine china and men in suites and women in dresses. We were concerned there may have been a dress code, but it was our anniversary and we wanted something a little special, so we decided to try it. We needn’t have worried!!
The restaurant was nothing like the picture
No table cloths, no high back chairs, no fine china, and nothing on the menu that came close to the meal depicted in their picture. Certainly, no dress code. In fact, the image is from Getty Images and appears on a number of websites. ( I wonder if they paid to use the image? )
Marketing Take Away
While it is OK to show your business in its best light on your website. Don’t be misleading.
In the age of Yelp, TriAdvisor and Facebook you will be found out. By trying to deceive me with there restaurant picture, they have gotten a bad review on Yelp (one of two bad reviews), Google and Trip Advisor, plus this blog post.
Show your business in its best light – but don’t cross the line and try and deceive your potential customers.
Never piss off a web designer – especially on his anniversary
BTW: A “shout out” to Tiny Eye for finding the copies of the image online.