Category: Google+ Local

As Google’s Home Service Ads rolls out to more verticals and more markets1, more and more service area businesses are going to feel the impact. While some of the details are changing it appears that Google is charging forward with Home Service Ads. The impacts go beyond those covered by in this great article: How Google … Continue reading Home Service Ads Alert – Read this Post →

For those of you that just can’t enough of me, here are other posts that I have helped create or worked on or appeared in. Channel7 Investigators uncover fake online reviews of Detroit businesses – I am the “expert” (or one of them) that helped with research and understanding for Channel 7 Detroit to file … Continue reading Mike B Around the Web This Week →

When Google Questions & Answers came out last week, I reached out to Barbara Oliver Jewelry (who doesn’t any street level presence in Williamsville, NY and is hidden on the third floor of an office building) and advised her on how to deal with the new product. She agreed that she needed to get out … Continue reading Help Us Write Barbara Oliver’s Content for the new Google Questions & Answers →

Walter Schärer, Director Marketing & Business Development at BlueGlass Interactive in Zurich alerted me to a newly created plug-in that they have recently developed: Jobs for WordPress. The plug-in easily formats (using Schema markup) your job listings to be compatible and readable by the new Google for Jobs search engine. Every business small and large … Continue reading Jobs for WordPress – A Plug-in that Every SMB & Agency Needs →

On Friday, Justin Mosebach of Improve and Grow , Lancaster PA  pointed out some new, very annoying behavior happening within Google Maps. When the business listing shows a business URL in Chrome, it now opens a new window “without any tab bar, bookmark bar, etc”. It does not happen in Mac Safari but according to … Continue reading Google Maps: Feature or Bug? Web Link Opens New Window With No Tabs and It’s Annoying →

The new Google Places Q & A offers a lot of potential for both helping and hurting a business. Here are some thoughts on how your business should approach this new and untried feature in the local Knowledge Panel. 1- Get out in front of them. Crowd sourcing can be intimidating to the typical business … Continue reading 11 Tips to Optimize the New Google Q & A →

Google has announced and started to roll out Places Questions & Answers, a crowd sourced and business source Q & A product for local Knowledge Panels. Tim Capper has a great summary as well that is worth the read. Essentially the product is designed to allow Google to offer additional FAQ type content via the … Continue reading Google Rolling Out Questions & Answers →

With help of Jason Brown, a fake review critic, I was invited to speak with WXYZ reporters while in Detroit last month on the issue of fake reviews and their impact.

Google is quite explicit in their guidelines that you can’t verify a listing via Google My Business prior to it opening. Apparently though, there is a new option within Google Maps Android to add a business under construction and indicate the date in the future that it will be open. Here is the relevant “rule” … Continue reading How to Add Your “Under Construction” Business to Google Maps →

Here are some posts/interviews from around the web: I did an incredibly enjoyable interview with Stephan Spencer of Marketing Speak about Reputation, reviews and local ranking.  The link to the shownotes, transcript, and audio is here and the iTunes link is here. Last Week in Local with Mary Bowling and Ed Reese covered the recent … Continue reading Mike B Around the Web This Week →

Joel Headley of PatientPop pointed out on Twitter that Google had added the ability to add a “make an appointment” URL to physician listings and other verticals, It appears that they have expanded these in various verticals and not just physicians as well as adding vertical specific options. Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, insurance agencies, … Continue reading Google My Business Expands Optional URLS for Appointments, Reservations & Ordering Ahead →

Early in July I wrote about a test that increased the presence of the Google My Business Dashboard via the front page of a Google branded search. Thibault Tadda alerted me via twitter of an upgrade to the test that now includes a to do list. If the business or a manager is logged in … Continue reading Google Expanding Front Page GMB Editing →

Here are articles that I published over the past week some place other than here: LocalU: Video: Last Week in Local July 31 Every week at LocalU Mary Bowling and I and the occasional guest discuss the news from the world of local. We look at strategic as well as tactical pieces that can inform your … Continue reading Mike B Around the Interwebs →

Google Websites is not a “blow your socks off” web building product. At least not by standards in the United States. That being said, should you as a web designer or SEO ignore it? That’s a good question. Scott Davis noted this about Websites on G+ in response to my noting that Google had hit … Continue reading Careful When Sleeping with Elephants – Are Google Websites a Threat to the Agency? →

Google is obviously expanding their Home Services Ads program. It has now moved east to Philadelphia and is also covering more verticals. In addition to the original plumbers and locksmiths it is expanding to the HVAC, electricians, garage door, roadside assistance, auto glass, painting, handyman, home cleaning and even appliance repair categories. Dave Squires, a … Continue reading How Google Home Services can Affect You – by Dave Squires →

It has been just over a month since Google My Business rolled out Google Websites worldwide. It appears that as of a few minutes ago, Google has passed a quarter of million sites built using the tool. That is roughly 40,000 sites per week, an average of 5681 per day since introduction. In the first … Continue reading Google Websites Passes 250,000 Sites Created →

Google, the past few days, has been rolling out a new capability with the down load Insights feature that now allows for spreadsheet data to be downloaded about Photos and Phone Calls in addition to the general Insights data that has been previously available. The feature, generally available since April, now allows additional details focusing … Continue reading Google My Business Updates Insights Download Reports →

Q: Has Messaging been launched as a product? Yes, Google has confirmed that it is now launched in the U.S. Q: Does every dashboard have Messaging? It is rolling out now to US users but should be in all US dashboards shortly. Q: Is the release worldwide? No, it is coming first to the US and next week … Continue reading Google My Business Messaging FAQ →

There have been numerous reports today of Google Messaging, the direct from Knowledge Panel SMS chat feature, rolling out more broadly. Whether this is an early rollout or a late test, it is hard to know as Google has not yet announced anything. The rollout does not seem to be veritcal specific as it is … Continue reading Testing of Google Messaging Rolling Out to More Dashboards →