Google Begins Replacing Google Places with Google+ Local

At the start of 2012, Google had announced Google+ Local that enhanced local searches to help visitors locate your favorite hotel or museum with ease. Many cities across the globe such as Madison, San Diego, Portland, etc., were included in this project.

After successfully setting up Google+ Local through the year, Google has started to replace Google Places with Google+ Local. Several websites have now discovered that their redirected pages have resulted in a 404 error and thus cannot be accessed by their visitors.

While some webpages have been redirected to a matching page on Google+ Local, others do seem to be facing problems in reaching corresponding pages. While Google has explained that the old pages are now obsolete, there are still several issues that need to be addressed by the company before redirecting all visitors to the appropriate Google+ Local page.

Viewers are unable to view Google Offers and Recommended Places on Google+ Local at this stage. Google claims that their Community Managers are still in the process of including several businesses located in different cities around the world. However, there are many cities that are yet to be included in this feature and Google does need to ensure they are actively present within each city.

For instance, the older Twitter account of the Dan Diego Community Manager that has not been updated since over a year has now been changed to the former Google Places Community Manager, but does not feature anywhere in Google+ Local. Even though this might not be part of the changing of Google Places with Google+ Local exercise, this indicates the path taken by Google in maintaining an actual presence.

Google’s latest project to actually replace Google Places with Google+ Local is bound to affect visitors and local businesses alike. You will need to monitor your URLs and redirects to ensure that your visitors can reach all your website pages without encountering any errors.