Local Search

Archive for the ‘Local Search’ Category

June 26, 2019

Massive Analysis of Local SERPs: It’s Mostly about GMB and Yelp

Social-local directory site FreshChalk just published an analysis of 150,000 local business websites and SERPs (with more installments to come). It maps multiple variables to ranking (caveat: correlation doesn’t equal causation). Many insights aren’t a surprise but a number of them are. I won’t restate all the findings; you can read them directly. Some are…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

June 25, 2019

Yelp and Google Bringing More ‘SaaS’ to SMB Profiles

Today Yelp introduced several Business Page upgrades. These new offerings, Verified License, Business Highlights and Portfolio, are designed to help business owners stand out and better promote themselves. They’re also intended to generate new subscription revenues for Yelp. Verified License was actually previously introduced (March) but Business Highlights and Portfolio are new. There are more…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

June 21, 2019

Fake Listings, Fake Reviews: Is This the New Normal?

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the prevalence of fake local business listings on Google. This is a known problem that local SEOs have talked about for years and that Google says it has been addressing, in an ongoing game of whack-a-mole. The article suggests, however, the problem is intensifying. It goes…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

May 31, 2019

Replay: The Future of Search and Why Local is So Important

During the LSA’s most recent webinar, Duane Forrester of Yext discussed the future of search and the four major trends that are driven by platform change. He explained what the search engines are most focused on, as well as how businesses can prepare themselves to succeed in this evolving environment. Here are each of the…

Contributed by: Courtney Dobson

May 30, 2019

Popular Dishes: Google Using Machine Learning to Improve Maps

Teased at Google’s recent developer conference, the company is rolling out (Android now, iOS in the coming month) a new “popular dishes” feature in Google Maps. Google Maps will now show images and descriptions of a restaurant’s most popular menu items. Google says this was created through machine learning by matching “dish names, provided by Google Maps users, with…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

May 9, 2019

Google: Local Campaigns Coming Soon to SMB Advertisers

This week Google held its massive developer conference (Google I/O). Next week is Google’s annual event dedicated specifically to its ad products: Google Marketing Live. Google teased the event in a blog post, which focused on Local campaigns. Local campaigns are a subset of Smart Campaigns, which are almost entirely automated. They’re intended mostly for SMBs and…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

May 7, 2019

The Death of the SMB Website Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

A number of people in the local SEO community have argued that GMB (and Facebook) make the SMB website a thing of the past — except perhaps as a “data hub.” And while it’s true that Google, Facebook, Yelp and other consumer destinations are typically the first consumer point of contact with small businesses, a new survey from…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 29, 2019

Google Tests Concept of GMB Subscription Bundles and Pricing

Over the weekend Google sent an undetermined number of Google My Business customers a survey about features and services. Some of these are existing features and some are hypothetical. It’s interesting as a roadmap preview, on the one hand. But more interesting is the fact that it presents bundles of services/features and potential pricing. The survey was posted on Twitter by Sean…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

April 24, 2019

Kohl’s 1,100 Stores Become Amazon ‘Return Centers’

Yesterday traditional retailer Kohl’s said it will accept returns for Amazon products at all of its stores. The policy will commence in July. The company has more than 1,100 retail locations in the US. Amazon and Kohl’s have had a partnership since 2017 and the latter has been selling selected Amazon products in some of its stores. The…

Contributed by: Greg Sterling

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