The leading search engine wants all registered businesses to consolidate their information on a single platform to improve search accuracy.

In its quest to consolidate as much information as possible and give users seamless access to data, Google is pulling content from business’ websites and review aggregators right on SERPs. This might seem unfortunate for companies engaged in web marketing, but it actually helps local businesses that want better organic traffic gain visibility.

Google’s latest push to encourage relevant info in search results is a consolidation of registered local business profiles. As Brafton previously reported, the search giant has been emailing Google Place and Google+ Local users, asking them to verify they are indeed in charge of companies’ accounts.

According to a Google Product Forum post by Jade Wang, Places users now need to confirm the upgrade that’s been made to their accounts because inactive or duplicate accounts have been suspended. The company wants to merge Google+ with many of its existing properties it may just be good for Google, so businesses that haven’t yet connected their Places data to Google+ should do so.

Google is also trying to tie up loose ends by eliminating duplicate accounts. For example, the old Google Places allowed businesses to register multiple owners. Going forward, establishments will only be able to have a single account attached to one Google+ Local account. Google’s algorithm track record – and recent announcements – prove it’s in brands’ best interests to share as much information as possible in their website content, so don’t hold back.

Accurate G+ profiles better for search visibility

Businesses that haven’t yet registered with Google are doing themselves a disservice. The modern web is being built on more than keyword use and backlinks. Google’s semantic search technology assembles concepts about companies based on content, location information and social media activity. Registering a company on Google+ – whether it has a physical location that caters to customers or not – is a great way to establish a brand identity on the internet. And if nothing else, companies should always be aware that the more information they provide to Google search crawlers, the better.

Alex Butzbach is a Marketing Writer at Brafton. He studied Communications at Boston College, and after a brief stint teaching English in Japan, he entered the world of content marketing. When he isn't writing and researching, he can be found on a bike somewhere in Metro Boston.