Good guides gone bad: How Google’s ‘Local Guides’ program fails businesses and consumers
0Reported today on Search Engine Land
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Good guides gone bad: How Google's 'Local Guides' program fails businesses and consumers
When Google launched Local Guides some years ago, few of us could have realized what level of impact this program would have on the local search ecosystem, and even if we had, I'd like to have thought it would be a positive one.
After all, getting real-life humans to contribute their opinions and time to make Google Maps more useful and accurate is a lofty and admirable goal, right?
Sadly, having spoken to several high-profile members of the local search community, including some Google My Business Product Experts (skilled users certified by Google as having exceptional and in-depth knowledge of their products), the current picture is far from optimistic. It seems that the professional perception of Google Local Guides is one of bad actors, gamification, abuse and misuse, as you'll see in the examples and quotes below.
What is a Local Guide?
But let's just back up for a second. For the uninitiated, a Google Local Guide is a Google user taking part in a program of activity that rewards them for frequent contributions to Google Maps. Users tend to skew towards Android smartphone owners due to the in-built Google access via their devices, but the program is available to anyone with a Google account and access to the Google Maps app.
The premise is very simple: every contribution (submitting a photo, writing a review, answering a Q&A question from another user, choosing an attribute for a business/location you've visited, suggesting an edit to a Google My Business profile, etc.) is worth points.
The more points you get, the higher your Local Guide 'Level' becomes, and each level unlocks rewards, such as membership of Google One,