Google+ Local HUGE Layout Change

[Eric Rohrback]

Holy Jebus, Google just made a crazy new layout change overnight (or maybe I missed this yesterday???)

I checked with a few clients as well, but my company's page is completely changed

Hubshout's Local Page

Has this been 100% rolled out everywhere?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Eric,

I'm seeing it as well. It must have went live where I am in the last 15 minutes or so.

Wild!

 

[Eric Rohrback]

I like it. Looks cleaner than the previous layouts... actually it looks a lot like what Citysearch did with their pages...

 

[Linda Buquet]

WOWSER - I leave to work on a new post and 10 minutes later everything changes.
THANKS FOR HEADS UP ERIC!

Remember the past 2 days in posts when I was addressing the funky stats issue and said it could be an update shaking things up.

When I posted to ask Google, another TC asked me if I thought this may be a sign of a pending update:

"A lot of things can get wonky during updates. I've been suspecting that could be what's up, but I have nothing to back that up. Just gut feeling that it's about time 'she' rocks our world again.

YEP! She's rocking our world again. Off to explore and see if anything else is new!

HOT! New Reviews Tab!

SOOOOO exciting!

 

[David Deering]

Yes, our G+ profile pages are getting a huge makeover today. Personally, I think it's a big improvement. I especially like the fact that reviews will have their own tab, which I think will perhaps prod or at least remind people to write Local reviews.

Here's a little more about the changes as shared by Googler Sara McKinley:

- A new tab for your Local reviews. In addition to your photos, +1's and YouTube videos, there's now a place for all your Local reviews. Highlight your favorite restaurants, or hide the tab completely via settings -- it's completely up to you.

- An easier way to edit your info. The 'About' tab now consists of separate cards (like Story, Places, and Links) -- each with its own prominent edit link. As always: you can share specific fields with specific circles, or keep them just for you.

- Bigger cover photos, with a better aspect ratio. Cover photos are much larger than before (up to 2120px by 1192px), and they display in 16x9 when fully expanded. This way more images can be used as cover photos, and there’s more room for your selection to shine.

Everything's rolling out gradually, so check back soon if you don't see it yet.

 

[Kel]

I like it. It was a sudden change! I refreshed a client's page and boom!

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I have to agree that the new layout is much more visually appealing. This all seemed to have happened in the last hour or so on my end.

 

[lvpc]

Definitely nice changes. Just wish they made the Google+ Local pages open to SAB businesses.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks David for posting the update from Sara at Google. I just found it too (and made your post about it bigger and stand out a little more.)

Here is another post from Google+ Daily:

Google Plus Daily: [Major Update] New Profile and Page Experience

The brand new 'Reviews' tab replaces the Reviews link that was previously in the 'About' section of your profile. The change makes it easier to share with the world your reviews of your favourite restaurants, coffee houses and more.

The new tab is filled with colourful widgets which aggregate information on your reviews. As you can see in the screenshot above, there is a Map widget which displays placemarks of the places around the world that you've reviewed. This should hopefully attract more Google+ users to write more reviews for Google+ Local.

​

(Image from Google+ Daily as well.)

 

[sergiuliano]

I confirm same layout in Europe, it looks amazing.

Thanks Eric for the update.

 

[BCLocal]

Love the new look. Interested to see if there are any new opportunities with this change.

 

[Dave Cosper]

Google+ just went XXL, and from a UI perspective, I like it. How will the BIG map adapt, if at all, to 'service-area' type businesses?

I'm eager to see what else is in store.

 

[Scott Rawlins]

I have gone to settings on checked the reviews box in order to show in a seperate tab, but don't see it showing on the live page. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Scott, don't feel like the lone ranger. Review tab is not showing up on my listing either like it is on the screenshot above. Have not figured out what's up yet.

BUT this is a brand new update and it's still rolling out, so let's see what happens later today or tomorrow.

 

[Alana Balbes]

I think that this new layout is awesome! The only concern I have with the Map being so big is that the location BETTER be correct on the map or else people will really be confused as to how to get to your business!! And with a lot of listings that I hide...Google puts my clients in weird spots. I will have to evaluate this and see how the maps look with "hide your location" clients. Overall, pretty stoked! And very relieved that Google was indeed going through an update, hopefully the actions & impressions come back. If anyone finds that theirs are coming back, please let me know! I have a ton to check on...!

 

[Cleaner44]

I like much of the new look but I am not a fan of the round profile image replacing the square image.

I wish they would have made the expanded cover have a dark bar beneath existing covers, since someone could have a white cover photo and that will now leave the text unreadable.

All in all I think it will be cool to see the vision of the true Google+ Local pages become a reality.

I wonder when they will add a "Local" search at the top of Google to go with maps and such.

 

[Linda Buquet]

And with a lot of listings that I hide...Google puts my clients in weird spots. I will have to evaluate this and see how the maps look with "hide your location" clients.

Alana, you can control where the map marker is with hidden address. I teach this in detail, but in a quick nutshell so as not to throw off this thread - she'll put marker in CENTER of whatever you put in service area settings. If you enter 5 towns or 5 zips she'll put it in the middle - EVEN IF it's a forest or middle of nowhere. So don't use that setting. Default is clients city + Zip. So she'll put in middle of that zip. If client is out on edge of town it may not be ideal. Guess what happens if you remove zip leaving just city, state? It puts their marker RIGHT IN THE CENTER OF TOWN!

 

[Greg Gifford]

The new layout is nice, and the new reviews tab is great...

but the mega-ginormous cover images are AWFUL... not only are they WAY too big, it's actually a detractor for company branding... when you land on the "about" tab, it only shows the bottom edge (reduced view) of the image... so you have LESS branding than you did before... (shaking head)

 

[Keenan Glass]

Saw this notice when I logged in to one of our accounts.



Ummm... ya think?

I wonder who that fortune-telling TC was?

Interesting, this page's profile image is a still a square.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I wonder who that fortune-telling TC was?

Talkin 'bout 'cha again Keenan. Were your ears burning? I guess we were on the same wave length
and your spidey senses must have been tingling, just like mine were!