Google Places Becomes Google+ Local

As of last week, Google has made a huge change in the way it gathers and reviews local businesses in it's index. Google's Places index has long been an excellent source for small business to increase their presence on the web. And now, Google Places has now become Google+ Local. Google announced the change last week via their blog.

Users can access enhanced local listings by selecting the new Local tab in the left sidebar of Google+, as well as through normal Google / Google Maps / mobile searches. The other big change is that business ratings have now been changed from the previous five star system to a Zagat 30 point scale. The argument for the new rating system is that it gives much more ability for nuanced reviews as compared to the old system, which just averaged out a business's rating vs. having the ability to rate it in multiple areas. In some ways, it wasn't hard to see this day coming after the Google purchase of Zagat last year. You don't pay over $150 million for a new toy and not do something with it.

Google Local gets replaced, and your business is now a restaurant. Or something.

What does this mean for you, the business owner? In most respects, not much will change. The move, in large part, is based on Google wanting to solidify themselves and their revenue in the mobile ad space. What is important to note as a business owner though, is that Google+ data and reviews are available to search engines. This is an important distinction as opposed to say, Facebook which does not let search engines index it's content. That means that active and deep Google+ pages can and will help your website and business in terms of SEO.