Google My Business Now Allows Deleted Plus Pages to Be Recovered
Kaleh Kohler, a top contributor in the Google And Your Business Forum and a very astute student of all things Google Plus, has pointed out a new feature of Google My Business (aka Google Pages Dashoard) that allows the user to recover (undelete) and manage pages that have been deleted. It would appear that it […]
Google Test Search Results – 11 Ads, 1 Directory and 3 Stinkers
Google is apparently testing a mobile style 3 pack as a replacement for the carousel. Whether a test or not, this test search result is quite amazing. I have a fairly large Thunderbolt display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440. That is more vertical resolution than 66% of all computers on the market as […]
Google Testing Carousel Replacement
Last week, Dr. Pete Meyers of Moz, posted on Twitter that he had seen a new deskop pack result that seemed to be replacing the Carousel. He has emailed me to note that he is now seeing it on a number of broad queries “including “chicago restaurants”, “restaurant reviews”, “chinese menu”, and “vegas hotels””. James […]
Google Updates Review Policy Help Files and Review Flagging Form
This could very well be old news. I have no idea when these two things changed but Google has made a substantial update to both their local review policies and the “flag and fix inappropriate reviews” help pages. The new “flag as inappropriate” form has more fields and is also more generic and it appears that it […]
Yelp Being Sued in San Francisco Courts for Misleading Investors
Gigaom reports that there is a new class action suit against Yelp for security law violations: The complaint alleges Yelp violated securities law by committing “fraud on the market,” and claims that executive sold stock when the price was near a high of almost $90 in February; the price fell sharply shortly after this in light of the negative […]
A Plug-in for Adding Google Reviews to Your WordPress Blog
Many have asked for a way to post their Google reviews on their site. This plug-in seems to solve many of the problems associated with doing that and seems to provide a useful solution. Google Places Reviews, installed at the right, allows a WordPress site to relatively easily embed up to the 3 most recent […]
“Nearby” – A Proxy for Voice Based Mobile Search?
Search modifiers, both those used by Google and those frequently used by searchers are interesting. In the case of the former, a change in how Google handled the phrase “near” led to some overstated numbers. In the case of the latter, I wondered whether any of them are effective proxies for measuring the increase in […]
Pigeon – An Anecdotal Impact Report
The recent Google Local Update (aka Pigeon) was very disruptive. Although as I wrote at the time and reiterate, when we actually look at actual measurable results can we both understand its actual impact and perhaps more of what was happening. There were two main parts to the update as expressed by Google: – Local search […]
Most Excellent! A Compendium of Greatest Hits from my Back Library
Have you ever thought: I really want to spend tonight reading Mike’s back library but I just don’t know where to start? Phil Rozek thought you might and wanted to make your job easier. He pored through the 2400 articles I have written since day one, drove them through the absolute best local algo (Miriam Ellis, […]
Google Adds Instant Listing Verification Via Webmaster Tools for Most Business Categories
Googler Jade has announced in the forums that they are now going to allow instant verification via webmaster tools for many businesses. From the announcement: Good news — starting today, if you’re verifying a page for your business, you may be instantly verified on Google My Business if you’ve already verified your business’s website with […]
Google Pigeon Poo
With every update from Google we often get artifacts that are very annoying. With the Pigeon Local Update we have our share of Pigeon Poo. Barry Schwartz pointed out the inclusion of Expedia in the carousel. Stefano Romero, Mike Ehline, Casey Meraz and David Perez have all pointed out similar, equally bad examples of Pigeon Poo type […]
Reviewer Demographics – Facebook has more Women, Yelp has more Men
We live in a big country. There are differences in behaviors between men and women, rural and urban and regionally. This is as true on line as it is offline. Those who leave reviews are not a uniform lot nor are their preferred review sites. In my recent research as to which sites US internet users […]
Yelp Reports $0.00 per Share Earnings
Yelp has just released their June ending numbers. I wanted to lead with a realistic headline before the other pundits did. While profit has never been something that Yelp crows about there are some interesting numbers: Cumulative reviews grew 44% year over year to approximately 61 million and and approximately 40% of new reviews were […]
Moz Updates Local Query Set – Revised Data Show 23.4% Drop Post Pigeon Update
MozCast has now updated their query set to better reflect what searchers are seeing. Even though their methodology was different than that of Whitespark, the new results showing a decline in 7-packs due to the Google Local algo update are much the same: a 23.4% drop. It is interesting to note that one of their observations which […]
Whitespark Reports a 24% Decline in Local Packs
Last week I reported that MozCast was showing a decline of over 60% in display of the Local Pack on Google after the recent local algo update. Moz was gracious enough to share their data and it was determined that their search queries had been obsoleted by the update. So while their data was internally […]
Crap Google Results & Yelp
Yelp is obviously very, very good with their SEO. They apparently have the ability to sculpt their internal link values to highlight what appear to be the most popular local businesses in the Google local results. Apparently their ability to do that in their strongest markets is even greater than elsewhere. These results, first highlighted […]
Google 7 Packs Dropped But Probably Not as Much as MozCast Indicated
Last week, in the wake of the Google’s Local Algo update, MozCast was showing precipitous decline in their tool that measures visibility of the pack. With the access to the actual queries (thanks to Moz for that transparency), Linda (and to a lesser extent I) noticed anamolies, with totally unpredictable results based on previous searching […]
Google to SEO’s, Designers & Advertising Agents: You are BACK ON the Map!
On December 31st, my headline was: GOOGLE TO SEO’S, DESIGNERS & ADVERTISING AGENTS: YOU ARE OFF THE MAP! Well as of last night, after almost 5 years, you (as well as web designers and marketing firms) are back in the Local results in most markets (thanks to Max Minzer for the tip). It appears to […]
Google Updates Local Algo with More Web Based Signals – Turmoil in SERPS
Last night just before going to bed reports (h/t to Brian Mayo) started drifting in about missing 7 packs in the real estate results. Map results that had been showing on almost all real estate related searches had disappeared from the results as have DUI lawyers. Around that same time Searchineland reported that Google was reporting a […]
Google Sends Out Local Sticker with Sophisticated, Personalized AdWords Solicitation
I just received the this Review Us on Google window sticker enclosed with a very sophisticated and personalized pitch based on the fact that I had a verified Local listing on Google Plus. The sticker was the hook to open the envelope. Once opened I was presented with a very slick, individualized piece of literature. The […]