Google Axes DemandForce, Yelp - Removes 3rd Party Testimonials for Dentists
Channel: SmartBox Dental
Date: 2011-07-26

http://www.smartboxweb.com

There some big changes going on with local search and Google Places.  If you've been keeping up you've seen that Google has removed all 3rd party reviews and testimonials from their Places pages that are syndicated from 3rd parties.  Now what this means to you is if you've been using Droogle, or DemandForce, or Ratepoint, or Yelp, or any other 3rd party review site that is NOT Google and allows you to collect testimonials, Google has now completely removed those from their Places pages and wiped the slate clean.  It was kind of a "too good to be true" scanerio where there were allowing all these 3rd party companies syndicate and include the reviews in their places page, and they've finally pulled the plug on it all.  I actually blogged on this back in December and said "this is probably going to be coming to and end, I don't see Google allowing this to go on."  

I'm going to post a video on my blog that shows exactly how to claim and verify your places page, how to optimize your places page, how to get a 1st page ranking with Google Places.  I'm also going to be showing you how to setup a system to syndicate and get your patients reviews directly input into Google Places, so that they will be there for years to come.  Check our blog for that video tutorial and stay tuned, I'm sure I'll be releasing more videos on this topic as we move forward.