Maximize Your Branded Presence

 

With the rollout of the new grey pin local search results, Google has continued to increase the amount of information from your Places page that is visible in the main search results.

Google is prepared to turn over to your company the better part of the information above the fold and with a little work and some luck you can maximize what the searcher sees about your business.

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Here are 8 tips that help you maximize “your ad” on the front page of Google:

1)Select the title tag of your home page with care. If you service only one city, it is no longer necessary to include the city in your title tag of your home page. Google is using other location signals to ascertain this information. Personally, I think that brand often trumps keywords in local markets. When that is the case I put I put the company name first which creates a strong, clean branded visual for the user. The brand is front and center in the results.

2)With the addition of Sitelinks Google provides 6 (it can be 12 but I have yet to see that many in local) or more additional opportunities to engage the customer. It is important for the pages that display to front load the description tags with the call to action and keep them short as there are very few characters (54?) that actually display.

3)Which pages show and title tags show and why is a bit of mystery so you want to be sure to monitor what is actually showing. It means that you want to be sure to NOINDEX pages that you definitely don’t want Google to have, like your 404 page. If a page does show up that you don’t want showing in this display but you don’t want to NOINDEX the page it might be necessary to demote the page from Sitelinks via the Webmaster tools. REGARDLESS, it means that even pages that you didn’t think would see much light might need to be updated with more relevant Titles and Description tags. Google changes what shows so review the display periodically.

4)Know what other IYP or Local Directories are doing a good job on the long tail branded search for your business name and be sure that you have maximized your presence with them. That might include data, photos and if appropriate reviews.

5)Google puts their reviews front and center so including Google in your review management process goes without saying. But since Google will be showing other review sites as well it makes sense to include them in your process.

6)Google also might surface rich snippet testimonials from your site. If you have testimonials be sure that they are marked up and the testimonial page has enough internal links that Google sees the page as a prominent one.

 

The Garmin aera 796 and 795 -Navigators with 3D Vision

 

Garmin announced its newest flagship aviation portable GPS series, the aera 796 and aera 795. These new devices have all of the great features you have come to know and love from a Garmin aviation portable like a 5 Hz GPS receiver, the patented Panel Page and XM weather integration, plus the aera 796/795 is enhanced with even more features that make it Garmin’s most capable aviation portable yet! Some new additions include a touchscreen user interface, pilot-selectable screen orientation and 3D Vision.

What is 3D Vision?
3D vision is a unique 3D view of the surroundings outside the aircraft. It uses GPS position and the terrain-alerting database to recreate a behind-the-aircraft perspective view of the topographic landscape. The resulting virtual reality display offers pilots a supplemental 3D depiction of land and water features including terrain, obstacles, runways and airport signposts all shown in relative proximity to the aircraft. With the flick of a finger, the 3D view can be rotated around the aircraft to easily view the surrounding terrain.

A path to a paperless cockpit

Because of the comprehensive offering of electronic charts, the aera 796 may be qualified for use as either a Class I or Class II Electronic Flight Bag (EFB). Geo-referenced IFR Enroute charts and VFR Sectional charts come pre-loaded, and the aera 796  also includes geo-referenced Garmin FliteCharts®, an electronic version of the AeroNav U.S. Terminal Procedures Publication. For pilots who prefer Jeppesen charts and diagrams, Garmin also offers a ChartView enablement option. Garmin ChartView utilizes Jeppesen’s extensive library to provide global charting capabilities. More “paperless” offerings include a digital document viewer, scratch pad and pre-loaded geo-referenced AeroNav IFR and VFR enroute charts.

Plus a large touchscreen display
The large icons on the high-resolution 7-inch touchscreen display make this device so easy to use. Using  your finger, you can quickly pan across the map, pinch zoom and quickly access information. The icons along the bottom row of the display are even customizable, so you can pick your favorite features and anchor them at the bottom of the display for even faster access.

The aera 796/795 will be on display and available for purchase next week at the AOPA Aviation Summit in Hartford, Connecticut. Come by and visit us! If you can’t make it to the show, but want to get your hands one one, visit your local Garmin authorized dealer.

New Branded Onebox Display in Google Places

Today is a new day and brings an apparently new display to the Branded Onebox display in the main search results. As Daniel Sheehan noted several weeks ago in the post about the change away from photos in the display, “When it comes to Google Places it seems that there is no normal. There are just short lived tests and longer tests.”
 


 
Slightly after midday yesterday (when the second screen shot was taken) Google changed the branded Onebox display to now include the image from the Places page and placing the map to the far right. Here is a screen shot from this morning and yesterday afternoon:

New:

Old: