Google has made some pretty big changes that will affect how your business is found on the web. These changes are especially important for small businesses to be aware of because if you don’t take action- your business ranking will suffer. In a nutshell, Google announced that Google Places will go away and be replaced with Google+ Local. This means, it is necessary to set up a Google+ Local business page so your Google Places can be moved to this site. Google has integrated with Zagat (a review company) and gone from a 3 point to 30 point rating scale. Your old reviews will not migrate into your new score and users will no longer be able to write anonymous reviews, they’ll have to be logged into their google + account. To learn more about this, read our latest blog about Google Changes.

Even better, if you are a fellow Vail Valley Partnership member, join us for a free presentation next Thursday, July 19th 2012 from 11:45am- 1pm discussing Google+ Local Pages & Other Free Resources You Didn’t Know Existed. If you’re not on Google yet- you need to be, and we’ll tell you why. We’ll also provide you with many other sites you need to list your business on and other tips to improve your search engine optimization. Click here to learn more about our presentation and RSVP.