Why Android in Car is Very Unlikely to Happen
Reuters has an exclusive report that Google’s next version of Anroid will be car ready for use without a phone. “Allowing drivers to enjoy all the benefits of the Internet without even plugging in their smartphones“. I have a hard time seeing this happening. For a number of reasons. Cars, like the iPhone, are integrated … Continue reading Why Android in Car is Very Unlikely to Happen →
Apple: Can Local Search Embedded in Spotlight as a Default Move the Needle?
Google has long been the top dog in local search. Along the way they bested IYPs, Driving Direction sites and Mapping companies. Google left more than a few, like CitySearch and Yahoo Local, among the walking dead and severely limited the growth options for the likes of the Groupons and Navteqs of the world. They have […]
Google Shows New Mobile Ad type for Auto Dealers
Brian Pasch of Mastering Automotive Digital Marketing noted that Google will be rolling out a new mobile ad type for auto dealers in January. Initially it will be available in limited markets with a limited set of keywords and only display in mobile. The Dealership Listing Ads (DLA) ads, shown in this example with Toyota dealers, will […]
Google Expands Hours Worldwide for My Business Support
Google has expanded the hours during which they are now providing English language phone support through the Google My Business Help Center. Support is now offered from 1 AM – 5 PM PST, Monday – Friday. Previously support was offered from 6 AM to 5 PM PST. Obviously, this is one of the benefits of […]
Google Moves Local My Business Phone Support to India – Expect the Call Times to Be Longer
Google has moved My Business Phone support to India and, at least for now, expect your call times to take longer. I noticed to changes to Google Local Support today. I haven’t called them in a while so it is not clear exactly when the changes were implemented. 1- It seems that a fair bit […]
Google – Some Days I Just Shake My Head – Today is One of Them
Over the past several days, a number of Google “annoyances” have cropped up…. sometimes it is amazing where a company like Google chooses to put its head…. that I wanted to get off my chest. 1- Did you know that Google’s bulk upload, even though upgraded multiple times with a raft of new ownership, management […]
Yelp Update: Free Bulk Upload and Yelp Proceeds with their Lawsuit
Rarely do I have something nice to share about Yelp but this note from Justin Mosebach of YDOP Internet Marketing was a pleasant surprise: Just found this out for a client yesterday. Client is a health system with a bunch of locations. Yelp called me back (after I called support) and said that only in […]
Google My Business Guidelines – A Detailed Comparison New & Old – Part 2 – Chains, Brands & Departments
On Friday I detailed changes in the new Google My Business Guidelines for Representing your Business that were general in nature and applied to all businesses or pertained primarily to single location businesses. Google has also added a completely new section that applies to Chains, Brands and Departments within larger entities. In this Google is […]
Google My Business Guidelines – A Detailed Comparison New & Old – Part 1
Google has completely rewritten their My Business guidelines and in doing so has provided both more rules and many more examples. The best way to think about the new document is to read the overview as a statement of their overal objectives and the sections below as providing more nuance and use case examples. At […]
Google Rolls Out Major Update to Google My Business Guidelines
Google has rolled out a major update to their My Business (ie Places) Guidelines. The new Guideline offers much more concrete examples and clarifies a number of situations particularly multi-practitioner listings and their naming. Some obvious highlights: Descriptors of any sort are NOT allowed Categories should be the more specific category and NOT the overarching, […]
Guide to Using Call Tracking for Local Search
I wanted to circle back to the call tracking issues in local. In my previous post, I wrote a great deal about where it doesn’t work. I also have wanted to cover where and how it does work. It made sense to me to ask someone in the industry to put it together so I […]
Apple Maps Vs. Google Maps – ThrowDown in Buffalo
As many of you know I live in upstate NY about 70 miles due south of Buffalo. You may not know that I am flying home today from Denver after speaking at the Hospitality Marketing Conference. You also know that there has been a boatload of snow in Buffalo and that people have died. And […]
Local Directories May Survive Google’s New Local Knowledge Pack
Last week, Google started to switch out its local Carousel results for a new set of mobilish-type pack results that appear to rely heavily on its local Knowledge Panels, so let’s call it a Knowledge Pack, or “K-Pack”, for the purposes of this post. In his seminal post Some Thoughts On The New Pak Results […]
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Some Thoughts On the New Pak Results from Google
Some thoughts & observations on the new [Hamburger] Pak from Google. 1-The local carousel is still in use and shows when you select a result delivered by “People also search for” in a 7-pack result. Will we soon see its demise as well? Currently Google shows five competitors, not three, below the brand Knowledge Graph. […]
Google Achieves 100% Monetization Above the Fold with New Pak
We knew that this day was coming. Like frogs in slowly warming water that ultimately reaches a boil we hardly noticed. On “average” screen sizes on the desktop, there is little else that can be seen besides ads and the new Pak. Thus in many search results that return a new Pak, only 3 listings […]
Which Terms Trigger the New Entertainment Pack
The new carousel replacement, like the carousel, shows for entertainment and recreational searches. This entertainment pack almost always (but not quite always) starts at position one right below any ads. I wanted to see which terms that previously showed the Carousel were now showing the new Entertainment Pack. When the original local Carousel first came […]
Google Continues Testing Carousel Replacement
Per James Gibbons and Brady Callahan on Twitter, Google is testing another variation of their Carousel Replacement. I was able to see the test in Safari on my Mac but not in Chrome or Firefox. Mileage may vary. It is similar to the display first seen in August but with three differences. One, the display […]
A Visual Guide to Using My Business Bulk Business Accounts For Multi User Management
Google is in the middle of a transition for bulk users from the Places Bulk dashboard to the My Business Bulk dashboard. Like the single location transition before this, it is frustrating and appears to a bulk user in the old dashboard to move excruciatingly slow*. But the technical aspects of the transition are not easy, […]
Google Releases Mobile My Business Updates
Google has just announced several updates to the mobile capabilities of My Business. Business Owners can now respond to reviews via the MyBusiness mobile app (Android today, iOS very soon) Call Analytics from within MyBusiness – this was a feature that was rolled out temporarily last month, but is now (permanently) available in mobile and desktop […]
Post Pigeon Geo Assessment – How Did Traffic Change by City Part 2
Moses and Rooth Attorneys at Law is a two location criminal defense practice with one office in central Orlando and one in New Smyrna Beach on the coast. I wanted to do a visual mapping comparison of pre and post Pigeon impacts like I did with Barbara Oliver Jewelry & Co. to see the impact of Pigeon both […]