Optimizing Your Physical Location For The Virtual World

In a fascinating melding of the real world and the virtual world, Google is combining Street View images, neural network analysis and a reverse Turing Test via reCAPTCHA to analyze the exteriors of storefronts.

Now, businesses may need to optimize the real-world exterior of their stores to ensure the best rankings on Google.

At SMX Milan last month, SEO expert Luca Bove explained that Google potentially employs an algorithm with its local search systems in order to improve maps’ locational quality. This data could also be used to validate business addresses to eliminate spam. Google’s development of these capabilities is just one component of the data collection about the real world around us that folds into the local search algorithms.

But how does this affect business owners and marketers? Although the early days of the Internet allowed businesses to control the way they were seen online, this has clearly changed dramatically since then. Business owners realize now that their online presence consists of a wide spectrum of information, and a continually evolving process must be used to maximize the benefits and reduce any negatives that exist. The real world and the virtual world are not as separate anymore as they once were, and it’s essential that businesses and marketers do all that they can do to combine their efforts into creating the best presence within local search.

The actual location itself is an important part of the online presence, but this can present some challenges. Historically, there have been issues with pinpointing locations, due to several factors, such as businesses that are joined together as part of large office buildings or shopping centers. Google and other systems incorporated building outlines into locational determinations to fix this problem, thereby finding a method to accurately determine actual organization address locations.

In July, Google was granted a patent entitled, “System and method of determining building numbers.” The concept is for Google’s mapping vehicles to capture the fronts of many buildings, such as storefronts, which will often include address numbers. Once these image files are associated with geolocations of the street spots where they were captured, an OCR system can be run through the images to capture words and numbers. This dataset can subsequently be processed against the business/organization addresses in a database and adjustments can then be made when necessary. Google has employed this system and boasts a fairly high success rate.

For marketers, it’s essential to understand the connection between the real world and virtual world when it comes to local search, and to ensure that all details are being considered. Many businesses can rest assured that the exterior of their physical locations are already ready, with accurate signage and an attractive look. However, for businesses who have inaccurate or unclear signage, now is the time to fix these problems. Has your business name changed? If so, ensure that your signage is current and accurate. Additionally, it’s essential to be sure that your signage is easily legible. If your business lists the hours of operation on the door, be certain that there isn’t a discrepancy between these hours and those that are listed on your website or other online directories.

Truthfully, all of these ideas should already be taken care of in order to make the most of your business location. However, with the continued melding of the virtual and real world, these details are more important now than ever before.