The Google My Business Updates You Didn't Hear About

Last Updated: May 26, 2017

If you follow our blog at all, then you know at least a little bit about the ever-changing nature of Google. The search giant is constantly updating its algorithm and the way it presents information to users. For major updates, Google typically makes a public announcement. However, for smaller changes, there’s often no warning. Webmasters and marketers are left to detect and analyze updates on their own. This is where Internet marketing specialists really earn their stripes.
It should come as no surprise, then, that there’s been more than one Google My Business update this year that flew under the radar. In fact, according to a recent article by Joy Hawkins on Search Engine Land, there have been at least seven. Hawkins’s article, “7 Unannounced Updates to Google My Business We’ve Seen in 2017,” illuminates them and offers helpful, actionable advice on how to deal with them. We highly recommend reading the full article!
In this blog post, we wanted to highlight a few of these Google My Business updates. The updates we chose particularly relate to our clients, who tend to be local business owners and service providers. Let’s get started!

“Permanently Closed” Listings No Longer Appear in Local Results

First, Google has stopped listing businesses labeled “permanently closed” in its local finder. This is good for users, as they won’t have to bother with closed locations in their search results. However, it could prove to be a potent weapon for dishonest business owners who mark their competitors as “permanently closed.” Since Google doesn’t notify you when your business is labeled as such, you won’t have any way of knowing about this label unless you check your Google My Business dashboard.

You Actually Can Review Edits to Google Business Listings

Another discreet Google My Business update is the new capability of reviewing edits to your business listing. Ever since Google got rid of MapMaker, countless business owners—and even SEO practitioners—have mistakenly believed there was no way to see edits made to their listings. However, as it turns out, you can review any edits made to your listing from the Google Maps app on your smartphone. (Hawkins points out that practitioners never noticed this feature because they’re typically working on desktops, not mobile devices.) Unfortunately, the only other way to review edits is to be an official Local Guide, which is essentially an elite Google Maps user. This capability for all Local Guides is the actual update; unfortunately, it doesn’t help too many small business owners. Still, most people were not aware they could use the Google Maps app for this purpose, so this is good news to many of us.

Google Is Removing Website Links From Certain Local Search Packs

A third Google My Business update that’s slowly affecting more industries has to do with what Hawkins refers to as the local “Snack Pack.” The Snack Pack is a specific layout for local search results that, for some reason, does not include links to businesses’ websites. Instead, each item in the results gives only the business name, address, phone number, and rating, plus a photo.
This tells us two things: 1.) Google wants to keep users on Google sites and not encourage them to visit other pages; 2.) It’s incredibly important to have your Google My Business profile completely filled out, in detail. This way, users can get as much information as possible from your listing since they’ll be less likely to navigate to your website. So far, according to Hawkins’s article, the industries affected are pest control companies, jewelry shops, and sporting goods stores. Knowing Google, more industries will join this group soon, so be on the lookout!

Find Out About the Other Google My Business Updates

Want to discover the other four Google My Business updates from Hawkins’s article? Check it out over on Search Engine Land!

Keep a Close Eye on Your Google Star Rating

Last Updated: March 30, 2017

Be on the lookout for any changes to your Google star rating!
Seeking to provide a valuable user experience, Google has long highlighted customer reviews and star ratings on its business listings. However, Google has altogether changed the way it determines and displays a business’s star rating.
Of course, it’s still based on customer reviews, but it now only requires a single review. Previously, Google wouldn’t generate a star rating until a business had at least five customer reviews. This change means a star rating, which displays right next to your business name, will appear even if you only have one customer review.
This could be good or bad for your business, depending on the review. If your only review is four stars, then your business will have a four-star rating on Google. Not too shabby, right? But if your only review is from a disgruntled customer who gave you a one-star review, your business won’t look so good. Most people would agree that a one-star rating is worse than no star rating at all.
At the risk of sounding melodramatic, a single customer review now has the ability to make or break your reputation on Google.
So how can you protect your online reputation from the whims of a single customer? By minimizing the impact of any one review. You do this by having lots of customer reviews. For suggestions on getting reviews, check out “How to Get More Customer Reviews Just by Asking for Them.”
For extra credit, take a look at Adam Heitzman’s article on Search Engine Journal for more details about Google’s policy change: “Google Reduces Star Rating Threshold: Why Businesses Should Take Notice.”

Are You Aware of This Threat to Your Google Maps Listing?

Last Updated: January 19, 2017

Do you have a Google Maps listing for your local business? When was the last time you checked it? Google Maps listings are under constant threat of being altered without the manager’s knowledge or consent. In this blog post, we’ll examine what’s behind this chronic problem, how it can impact you, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Let’s jump in, shall we?

Anyone Can Edit Your Google Maps Listing

First things first: How can your listing be changed without your say-so? It’s surprisingly easy these days.
Google essentially allows all of its users to edit other business’s listings with the simple click of a button. When a user clicks “Suggest an Edit,” they submit proposed changes to Google regarding any piece of information, such as phone number, street address, business hours, website URL, and business name. Google then decides whether to accept the changes or not. Typically, Google keeps a suggested edit when multiple people submit the same one, but there doesn’t appear to be a hard-and-fast rule for how it makes its decisions. However, no matter the case, Google does not involve the listing owner whatsoever in its decision. Furthermore, when Google decides to sustain an edit to your listing, it will not notify you.
Making matters worse, these community edits don’t show any information about the user who made the change. In other words, Google offers no accountability for random, unsubstantiated edits from anonymous users. Desperate businesses can easily sabotage their local competitors with zero consequence.

It Can Happen to You

In fact, a nightmare scenario played out back in November when nearly 60 listings for insurance companies all had their phone numbers changed to the same one—which had no connection to any of those companies. Instead, this new phone number directed callers to a lead provider, who would then sell these leads back to the insurance companies who owned the edited listings. Effectively, the victimized companies now had to shell out money for their own leads.
You can read all about this debacle over on Search Engine Land. Hopefully, it proves to be an extreme fluke. However, it’s a cautionary tale of the damage that can happen when you’re not paying attention to the information on your Google Maps listing. Your listing may be displaying the wrong information to your visitors while you’re none the wiser.
When Google shows users the wrong information about your business, they won’t be able to get in touch with you. You’ll lose customers as a result. Plus, since this information will now conflict with the rest of your business information on the web, your rankings could be negatively affected. When your listing is edited by another user without your knowledge, the damage can be far reaching.

Protecting Yourself Is Easy

The above example is exactly why we urge business owners to actively and regularly check on their Google Maps listings. If you check your listing just once a day, you’re likely to catch any incorrect changes, fix them, and minimize damage to your rankings and daily business operations.

1. Don’t Google Yourself

But beware: Do NOT google yourself to check your Maps listing. Few people know this, but regularly googling yourself actually causes significant problems for your search rankings. As we explained in our blog post, “The Ins and Outs of Googling Yourself”:

In your own, individualized Google results, you can drive your placement down in the listings by repeatedly searching for—and not clicking on—yourself. This certainly happens for your own personal search engine results, but if you do it enough, it’s also conceivable that you could impact your rankings when other people search as well!

Googling yourself is equally damaging to any PPC or AdWords campaigns you’re running. When you google yourself without clicking on anything, you spike your number of impressions without adding to the number of clicks. This lowers the click-through rate (CTR) of your ads, which drives down your Quality Score as a result. Read more in our blog post, “When Pay-Per-Click Becomes Pay-Per-Search.”

2. Use Your Google Account

Thankfully, getting around this problem is fairly easy: Just sign in to your Google account and peek at your Maps listing through the dashboard, instead. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s well worth the effort when you consider the alternative and its downsides.
In addition, the majority of small business owners rarely ever check on their Google Maps listings. This is what leaves so many of them vulnerable to sabotage. So if you start checking yours on a regular basis, you’ll be way ahead of the competition!

No Excuses

Too busy or can’t remember to check your listing every day? For less than $10 a month, Prospect Genius can do it for you! Check out our MapTrax™ service to learn more.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Now that you’re aware of this problem, which is facing local business owners everywhere, you have what you need to prevent it from hurting your business. Good luck!

Google My Business Updates You Need to Know About

Last Updated: September 29, 2016

If you’ve been frustrated with how difficult it is to monitor activity on your Google My Business account, you’ll be relieved to hear about some updates that just rolled out.
Most notably, business owners are excited about an update that now pushes notifications to your dashboard. You can see in real time things like new customer reviews, location status changes (e.g. published, disabled, or pending verification), and NAP data updates.
In short, the new Google My Business API V3.1 makes it much easier to keep tabs on your listing.
Check out Mike Blumenthal’s write-up to learn more about other noteworthy updates. And be on the lookout for these new features of Google My Business, which you should start seeing in the next couple of weeks.

Don't Believe Us About the Importance of Accurate Listings?

Last Updated: June 23, 2016

We tell our clients over and over again that the accuracy of their online listings can make or break their advertising efforts. If your listings don’t have accurate, consistent information across the board, then you’re fighting a losing battle.
Our lectures are often met with skepticism. How important could all these little listings really be?
In Moz’s latest “Whiteboard Friday” video, George Freitag explains why listing accuracy is vital. Here’s an industry leader repeating exactly what we’ve been saying for years:

Google takes trust very seriously. So how does Google determine trust? That is where listing accuracy comes into play. Listing accuracy is Google’s method for determining whether or not it can trust a local business search result.

How Does Google Use Listings?

When we talk about “listings,” we’re referring to any webpages mentioning your business name, address, and/or phone number. These could include review sites like Yelp, directories like Whitepages.com, and even local news sites. Google uses these to figure out how credible your business’s information is. If the information in these listings all match what’s in your Google My Business profile, then Google will be more inclined to present your business as a local search result because the information seems trustworthy. However, on the flip side, if there are several online listings with information that clashes with your Google profile, then Google will be less likely to display your business. It won’t feel confident it can trust your information.
At the end of the day, it comes down to the reliability of information. Google wants to keep its users happy. The only way to do that is to provide them with information that’s consistently correct.
Therefore, keeping accurate listings across the web is a vital element of local search optimization. You have to keep your existing listings updated with all the right information. You also have to fix any other incorrect data floating around on the web. You may not know about this incorrect data, but Google will.

What If I Can’t Find Every One of My Listings?

Because it’s so difficult to find incorrect data in obscure places on the Internet, many small business owners have trouble asserting their presence in local searches. But this is how you can benefit from working with a local SEO company like Prospect Genius. An SEO specialist can do a deep audit of your existing web presence, find the errors you can’t, and fix them. This will give you the highest level of accuracy possible and boost your presence in local searches.
For all the details about listing accuracy, we strongly recommend you watch the full video over on Moz.
And, of course, reach out to us if you have any questions!

Prospect Genius