Google has been working on a few upgrades of late, dating back to September last year. The first change was for a more effective visitor view by doing away with the tabs. This was merely a design change with an objective to attract more business owners to list their business on Google Maps, I reckon they have done a good job of doing that.

Recently, which is more SEO related, Google has started adding reviews from non-traditional websites. A good example of this is Bob & Paige Salon, they are receiving reviews from a blog article written about them. The reviews are coming from the comments area of the blog post (below the post). This does potentially complicate reputation management but for good reasons though. When Google began using reviews within Google Maps there was an influx of companies generating their own reviews which appeared rather spammy at times. To counteract the spammers, Google has taken it on themselves to source natural reviews from blogs, comments and alike. Business owners have no control of the new algorithm so whether it is good or bad, Google will have the opportunity to expose the truth as to what people are saying about companies. I wonder if Hello Peter will be on Google’s list??

To date I haven’t seen these new additions within Google South Africa’s search results but it won’t be long until we do.

NOTE: How to build an online strategy centered around public relations?

About Neil Pursey

Founder of WebGrowth. He has been optimising websites since 2006. He has since done guest talks on SEO at Wordcamp, University of Cape Town, Blogger Food Indaba and others.. Co-founder of the GROW Academy, a South African initiative to educate the youth in digital marketing. He heads up the SEO sessions at the GROW Academy.
He is also the Online Marketing Manager for the Rawson Property Group.