If you’re looking for some fun things to do in your local area, look no further than your local guide program. These programs are designed to help residents find information on attractions, dining, and cultural events in their community.
Local guide programs typically provide maps of the area as well as detailed information on local businesses and services. So if you’re looking to explore your neighborhood or just want to learn more about what’s going on in your community, be sure to check out your local guide program.
How To Earn Points & Badges
Recognized for their contributions to Google Maps is Google Local Guides. Find out how to sign up for the program and how to earn badges and points.
Google relies on a global network of committed volunteers to update Search and Maps with the most recent data on organizations, locations, and neighborhood attractions.
These people are referred to as Local Guides.
There’s a strong possibility Google Local Guides have offered the information you need to make wise judgments when you visit a new location and look up information about hotels and restaurants.
Searchers like you benefit from the reviews, images, videos, and other content that Local Guides voluntarily provide.
That’s almost accurate, though. Local Guides are compensated virtually for their efforts.
Google created the Local Guides initiative to reward average people for contributing to the upkeep of Maps.
Assuring the accuracy of the data provided by businesses is another responsibility of local guides.
Anyone is eligible to join the Local Guide program, so why not receive recognition for your efforts if you already write evaluations for Google Maps?
The Google Local Guide program will be explained in detail in this post, along with how to sign up for it and the benefits you can obtain.
What Is The Google Local Guide Program?
Gain points as a local guide by adding comments, images, and details to Google Maps. Higher program levels and advantages, such as first access to Google features and special partner benefits, are available with these scores.
Local Guides cannot get compensation for their contributions and are not paid under the terms of our program. For those who love to contribute to Google Maps and enjoy assisting others in exploring and learning about the world, there is a program called Local Guides. They may also receive other advantages, like first access to new Google products.
A global community of travelers known as Local Guides adds and edits destinations, posts images, answers queries, and verifies information on Google Maps. To make decisions about where to go and what to do, millions of individuals depend on assistance like yours.
Gain points as a local guide by adding comments, images, and details to Google Maps. Higher program levels and advantages, such as first access to Google features and special partner benefits, are available with these scores.
Becoming a local Google directory is very simple! Visit the Google Local Places website first, then sign up. If you currently have a Google account, you can link it; if not, sign up and get started. All that remains is for you to approve reviews and ratings and add pictures of the places you’ve visited.
Points, Levels & Badges:
Contributions to Google Maps that qualify for points include:
- Review the product – 10 points
- 200+ character reviews are required for 20 points.
- Give a company one point.
- Photo upload: 5 points
- Tag a photo for three points.
- Video upload: 7 points
- Answer questions – 3 points
- Information correction – 5 points
- Place addition: 15 points
- Road addition: 15 points
- Verify a fact for 1 point.
- publish a list of those who qualify – 10 points
- Five points for describing anything in a list.
As you accrue more points, you’ll advance through the Local Guides program tiers.
When your name appears in Google Maps, a badge will be visible next to it if you reach level four and higher. Following are the levels of the local guides program:
- Level 1 – 0 points
- Level 2 – 15 points
- Level 3 – 75 points
- Level 4 – 250 points
- Level 5 – 500 points
- Level 6 – 1,500 points
- Level 7 – 5,000 points
- Level 8 – 15,000 points
- Level 9 – 50,000 points
- Level 10 – 100,000 points
High-level Local Guides used to receive benefits from Google, including free cloud storage and savings at the Google Play store.
Google stripped off the extras as the program evolved and currently only distributes badges. There is no guarantee that Local Guides will always have early access to new Google features.
Why Google Local Guides?
A community is how Google characterizes the Local Guides. Local customers who participate in the community go out and rate local companies, take photos, discuss their experiences, post reviews, respond to queries based on their own experience with those businesses, add locations that aren’t already on maps, and double-check the information. Points, trophies, and benefits are given in exchange for participation. The incentives program informs us that this effort is important to Google, which is not unexpected.
The guides serve as a global network of on-the-ground fact-checkers and researchers. In order to find, record, and upload local business information in real-time, guides hit the streets. They act as a collective intelligence for the search engine, assisting it in making sure its Maps product is more precise, more current, and superior to competing options. It is reasonable to assume that the effort performed by Guides in their villages and cities across the globe fuels the entire Maps ecosystem.
What If I choose not to register as a google local guide?
The acts that Guides take are not only limited to individuals who sign up for the program, it should be highlighted. You can carry out many of the same tasks even if you choose not to register as a Google Local Guide. For instance, you can use Google Reviews to submit an objective assessment of a local business. A local business’s Google My Business profile and local search results will both display your own photos that you have uploaded of the establishment. By selecting the “share the latest info link” in local search, you can also post a question, suggest a change to a local company listing, and respond to Google inquiries, such as whether a location is wheelchair accessible.
As a Google Local Guide, though, your efforts will be gamified, so the more you contribute, the more points and incentives you’ll earn.
How To Join The Google Local Guides Program:
Step One:
On Google Local Guides select “Get Started” on the registration page.
Step Two:
Click on “Become a Local Guide” and type in the name of your city.
Step Three:
Start accumulating points by adding to Google Maps.
You may monitor your points and advancement to the next level in the dashboard, like the one above.
You will get recommendations for places to review based on your travels if you allow Google to examine your location history.
To participate in Local Guides, however, you don’t have to enable location history tracking. You can always manually search for locations and additional information for them.
What advantages are available to Google Local Guides?
You will receive a specific number of points for each type of contribution you make through the Google Local Guides program, including reviews, photo uploads, questions and answers, changes, and the addition of missing locations. Then You will receive 10 points, for instance, if you review a nearby business. You will receive 10 bonus points for reviews that are longer than 200 characters and more in-depth. Earn five more points by adding a photo, and so on.
The more points you get, similar to in a video game, the higher level you reach.
You’ll receive a badge after you reach a certain level. Increase your contributions to accumulate more points, advance through the levels, and receive nicer badges. Only after you achieve level four and up, which requires 250 points, will you be given a badge. The highest level, Level 10, requires 100,000 points to reach. The points collected will be taken away if your contributions are deleted for breaking Maps regulations.
Google Signing Up Local Guides
Google constantly mentions the advantages of signing up for Google Local Guides. Given that Google lists early access to new Google features as one of the main advantages, these are perhaps of the most interest to avid Google users. Additionally, it states that Google Local Guides may get exclusive benefits from partners, but it doesn’t specify what those benefits might be or whose partners they would come from.
Some Guides claim to have received free gifts such as socks, cash off Udemy courses, a free phone case, and 1TB of free Google storage during a two-year period in this Reddit thread. Others claim their partners haven’t given them any benefits. Some Guides in that same forum speculated that those partner benefits might have been curtailed in order to combat Maps fraud. Given the local search industry’s displeasure with Local Guides who abuse and misuse the system to level up their points, this is a possibility.
According to Google, badges acknowledge the Guide’s contribution, thus, for individuals who take great delight in their local expertise, the badge may be sufficient compensation.
Looking to start a business? You can rely on online business as well.
Summary
Anyone with a Google account can sign up to become a Google Local Guide by following a brief process. When leaving reviews, a badge indicating that you are a Local Guide will appear next to your name once you have made enough contributions to reach level four.