Google has recently made some changes to the Google Places section of its website. These changes may not be obvious but they are expected to make it easier for users to find information about both international and local businesses. Google recently sent out a 3-week notice email to business owners asking them to update their Google Places profiles to make sure all of their information is up to date. Businesses who fail to update their information or to confirm their current information with Google will risk deletion, which would require them to recreate their profiles from scratch. In addition to making sure that their information is both current and accurate, Google has updated and translated thousands of new categories of businesses to be displayed to users regardless of the language being used to perform a search.
How Will Translated Categories Help Search Results?
Previously, users who were traveling abroad had trouble finding particular categories or businesses due to translation errors that occurred during the search inquiry. When users would look up a business or category in their native language, the search results would often yield results that were unrelated. This wasn’t so much a search engine error as a problem with cultural differences between two different languages. The category under which a local business posted its information wasn’t always an exact match to the user’s native language. After extensive updates and translations, the system has improved international searches immensely and now provides users with higher quality and more relevant search results.
What Does This Mean to the Average User?
It won’t make a significant difference in the aesthetic appearance of the traditional Google webpage, but it will help eliminate problems that users often experience when traveling abroad or when looking to try out a restaurant that may no longer be in business. This will help Google provide users with exactly what they are looking for during their search inquiry by eliminating room for mistakes.
What Do I Do If I Am a Business Owner?
If you are an international business owner, you won’t need to do anything to be affected by the changes and the international categories translations. However, if you have recently received an email from Google asking you to update your information, you will want to do that immediately. After the allotted 3-week time period has passed, if you haven’t updated your information with Google, you will have to set up your profile all over again from scratch.