Finally! Good Google news for small local businesses

Or so reports former Wall St. Journal reporter and current writer/editor/content strategist Kelly Spors, from Minneapolis, drawing our attention to a Search Engine Journal story:

Before Pigeon, there was a strong chance that searching for pizza restaurants in Boise will return listings for major brands such as Domino’s and Pizza Hut towards the top of the [search engine results page or SERP]. In the post-Pigeon era, search results that are authoritatively local will be more prominently featured … and they will be enhanced with relevant content. Pizza restaurants in Boise that have a verified presence on Google’s own social network, Google Plus (G+), will benefit from having their menus, reviews and photographs shown on the SERP. To this end, local business owners will definitely want to ensure that they are doing their share of content marketing and social media engagement on G+.

(Pigeon is the nickname given to the latest Google update of its search algorithm.) This welcome change supports the business case for services such as Yext and boomtime (the one I endorse and represent), that help local businesses with so-called identity marketing.

How are YOU doin'?

Yes, that's me quoting Joey from the long-gone show "Friends" -- and as revived more recently in a very funny cable show called "Episodes," where Matt LeBlanc plays himself, more or less -- and can't get any of the "Friends" to take his calls. And just why am I quoting him? Well, we all want to know how we're doing, and online, swimming in the foggy soup of things that can be tweaked and measured, it's easy to lose sight of goals. But it's not enough simply to look for more sales or even profit, because it takes doing all the steps of the process well, to achieve the end result. Hence, milestones, and measuring tools. Here's a list from one of the providers of their own, and many other free tools to see how well you rank against others as well as how well you're progressing against your own goals: http://j.mp/freewebgrades