Phil

It may not happen soon – or suddenly or permanently – but the chances are good that sooner or later Google will monetize more of the Map.  Maybe all of it will become ad space, or maybe certain features of your Google My Business page will require you to load quarters into them.  Probably a little of both, plus something we can’t foresee.

If and when that happens, you’d better have your pants on.  One leg is to determine how willing you are to pay for any aspect of your Google Maps visibility.  The other leg is to be in a good enough position that pay-to-play is optional for you.

I first pecked out some of the advice in this post in 2015, when Google took the advertising shoehorn to the map.  If nothing else, that should tell you that even Google’s most-obvious plans can take years to unfold, and that the local map probably won’t change overnight (as some SEOs and others might have you believe.

Some of my advice here may be obvious to you.  Some of it you should do anyway, regardless of Google’s moneymaking schemes.  But I’ll always be a Boy Scout, so my advice always is “Be Prepared.”  I hope this post serves as a checklist of things you’ll do before the shotgun wedding.

1. At least try every Google My Business bell and whistle and get a sense of which features (1) you might use longer-term, and which features (2) seem to help your business in some way. That’s good to do in case Google monetizes only some features in Google My Business, and not the whole thing. I’m not saying you should carve out a lot of time for Google’s knickknack du jour.  I’m saying that if you haven’t used a given Google My Business feature when it was free, you probably won’t try it if and when it’s paid. Don’t cut it too close.

 

2. Decide now whether you’ll become more specialized any time soon. The time to start trying to own a more-specific niche is not after you’ve been squeezed on some of your more-competitive local search terms.

3. Copy, paste, and save your Google reviews, and note down the names of the customers who wrote them. That’s always been a good idea, but your reviews are not safe if they all live in one of Google’s data centers. If a major change is on the way, Google’s even more likely to leave your reviews in the cargo hold and let them freeze to death on the flight.

By the way, if you have so many Google reviews that saving them all sound tedious, don’t you suppose it will be even more tedious to ask everyone to review you again?  You’ll be lucky if 40% of them follow through.  Pack ’em away.

 

4. Take a screenshot of what shows up in the knowledge panel you see on the right-hand side when you search for your business by name. If you’ve got multiple locations, take a screenshot of what you see in each location’s sidebar.

5. Grab a few Google Analytics reports, or at least take screenshots. Get a sense of your organic-only traffic , referral sources, and maybe pull a “Geo” report. If you can sock away data for the last few years, great, but get recent intel at least.  If Google monetizes more of the map, your traffic will probably be affected in one way or another, and you’ll want to understand how (if possible).  You’ll also want to know if Google’s potential pay-to-play move doesn’t affect your visibility much.  You’ll be in a better position to know those things if you know what your baseline is.

6. Cultivate other sources of traffic: not only non-Google Maps visibility (especially organic rankings), but also non-Google visibility. That’s just common sense, bordering on “Duh” advice. So rather than explain what may be obvious, I’ll point you to these two posts: “Local SEO without the Local Map: What Is It?” and “Relationship between Local and Organic SEO: a Simple Diagram.”

7. Consider tracking every Google My Business URL field with UTM codes. I say “consider” only because I don’t bother doing that for clients, because it doesn’t change our action items or other decision-making. Still, you might find it useful to know more about who clicks where, so you can see what effects a more-monetized map might have.

8. Get familiar with AdWords (sorry, “Google Ads”), if you’re not already into it. At the very least, just run a quick-and-dirty campaign with a small budget, maybe with a focus on your more-niche keywords. Unless you’ve got good PPC chops, you probably shouldn’t expect to get many or any customers from it, but you will get useful data.  You can find out the exact search terms people use, exactly where they search from, what calls-to-action they respond to, and other insights that can affect your local SEO strategy.

9. Get cracking on Google Maps “spam patrol” before your spammy free-visibility competitors become spammy advertisers, and possibly even more entrenched.

 

 

What’s part of your “bunker plan” for possible paid or freemium Google Maps results?

Has the pay-to-play possibility changed your local SEO/visibility strategy in any way (and if so, how)?

Leave a comment!

For better or for worse, you can “buy” your way to the top of Google’s local 3-pack if you have a Google My Business page that already ranks OK, and if you use AdWords, enable location extensions, and meet a few other criteria.

It appears that’s also how you can buy wiggle room to spam the Google Maps results.

I say that for one simple reason: I’ve had one hell of a time getting Google to approve edits to Google My Business pages that spam blatantly and that show in the “paid” 3-pack.  So far, Google has approved my edits much less consistently than when I’ve made the same kind of edits to non-advertisers’ listings.

The two kinds of anti-spam edits that Google – in my experience – is most likely to approve are (1) changes to spammy business name, and (2) the removal of listings that use fake addresses or are for fake businesses.  Recently I submitted edits to the keyword-spammy names of 15-20 Google My Business pages that showed up in the paid section right above the local 3-pack.

Google only approved 2 of my changes, and it approved those instantly.  The other 15-or-so changes were rejected after only a few hours or by the following night, when I checked.  Google usually approves more of my edits to business names  – I’d estimate about 30-40% – and leaves “pending” for days or weeks the changes it may or may not accept in the end.  (For other types of edits I’ve got a good track record, but Google doesn’t approve them as often.)  Google made the wrong decision more decisively than usual.

By the way, most of my edits were to moving companies, and to a lesser extent to keyword-spamming dental practices.  I found it strange that the only edits Google approved were to the dental practices, and not to the moving companies.  The latter is much more notorious for spam, because there’s much more spam in it.

My “test” (if you can call it than) was anything but scientific.  It’s also a work-in-progress, because I’ll continue to nibble at spammy advertisers and non-advertisers alike.  If I learn anything new, I’ll update this post, or do a follow-up, or both.  There’s a lot I don’t know yet.

So far, about the only thing I can say with confidence is that Google doesn’t scrutinize local-pack advertisers more than it scrutinizes businesses that don’t run ads.

Maybe the easiest way to wrap up my quick, in-progress observations is with a quick Q&A:

Q: Is there Google Maps spam in the paid 3-pack results?
A: Yes.

Q: Is there more spam or less spam in the advertiser’s slot above the 3-pack?
A: About the same.

Q: Can you get edits approved on AdWords advertisers’ spammy listings?
A: Yes, occasionally.

Q: Is Google as likely to approve an edit to an advertiser’s listing?
A: No, apparently.

Q: If the business stops advertising, is Google more likely to approve the edit?
A: I don’t know.

Q: Does Google hold advertisers to higher standard?
A: Sure doesn’t look that way.

Q: Is Google likely to fix the spam situation in general?
A: Good one.

 

I’ve never thought the “paid” slot above the 3-pack is inherently bad – as long as it’s clear to searchers that it’s an ad, and as long as it doesn’t gobble up the whole page.  AdWords often is a good way in for businesses that aren’t ranking well, and the free results often are a good way in for businesses that aren’t dominant advertisers.  There can be a balance, and I think there should be a balance.

My concern is businesses can spam their way into the 3-pack, flick on AdWords, and possibly be more likely to get away with that spamming.  AdWords shouldn’t create even more of a temptation to spam the map.

What’s been your experience in dealing with Google My Business spam by businesses in the “ad” section of the 3-pack?

Leave a comment!

I always like when Google drops a subtle hint about what it wants you to do.

If you haven’t done a Google My Business post recently, and if you have a good-sized pile of Google reviews, there’s a good chance Google will auto-generate a “Suggested Post” that quotes one of your Google reviews.  (As of this writing, I call this feature “Suggested Review,” because the only type of post Google seems to suggest is a somewhat-bland excerpt of a review.)

You may see it when you log into your Google My Business dashboard.  It will look something like this.

The “suggested” review seems to be an offshoot of the “Small Thanks” program, in which Google tries to charm you into making your Google reviews more visible on Google.

I’m not the first to spot this.  Cordell Crowley posted on this at the Local Search Forum last month.  I hadn’t seen the “Suggested Post” feature then.  Because I haven’t heard anything about it since then – or seen this new kind of GMB post in the wild – I assume most other people also haven’t seen hide or hair of it in their Google My Business dashboards.

If you’ve done a Google My Business post recently (within the last 7 days, or you used my workaround), you won’t see the “Suggested Post” option.  Likewise if you don’t have many reviews (I’m trying to get a bead on the number), or if you see a “suspended” message in the GMB dashboard.

It doesn’t appear there’s a way for you to see Google’s “Suggested Post” if you have been active in posting to GMB, which is a shame.  Apparently, there’s also no way to pick a different review for Google to excerpt.  The spirit of Henry Ford lives on.

Not a game-changer feature by any means, but a handy new capability.  Hope it stays around for long enough to determine whether it’s useful.

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Do you see the “Suggested Post” option in your dashboard?

Have you tried it out?

Leave a comment!

Two problems with Google My Business posts are (1) they’re not too visible anymore unless someone searches for your business by name, and (2) people without itchy mouse-fingers only see a tiny preview of the post in the sidebar.

Those are valid concerns.  Though you can use my hack to keep Google My Business posts from becoming a big time-taker, you still might wonder whether you should bother with them at all.  Or you might figure that if very few people see your posts, you might as well load them up with keywords, in case that helps your rankings on the local map.

Those also would be legitimate reasons not to do a Google My Business post for a coupon or other special offer.  “You want me to offer coupon nobody will see?  No thanks.”

What if your coupon showed up in the Google Maps 3-pack, like this?

(Thanks to Anas of Batteries Shack for the tip.)

That coupon is from a Google My Business post.  As you may have noticed, Google often grabs the content of GMB posts and sticks them in the 3-pack results, when the content of a given post is relevant to the search term someone typed in.

You can get your offer to show up in the Maps 3-pack if you create an “Offer” type of post, but it doesn’t need to be an “Offer.”  It could also be an “Event” post, for example.  Google can grab the content from any species of post and stick it in the Google Maps / 3-pack results (Brodie Clark briefly mentioned that fact in this great post he wrote with Joy Hawkins.)

Most of the benefits of that are obvious.  But I would assume that a compelling offer in the 3-pack also may help your rankings when people type in a search term, see you ranking for that term, and click on your listing because your offer is relevant.  Just a hunch.

Anyway, I suggest you try putting out a coupon or other special offer in a Google My Business post.  You may or may not get any takers, but at least your offer won’t be relegated to sidebar Siberia.  People will see your offer whenever you pop up on the local map, and for search terms relevant to the offer.

For tips on creating a solid Google My Business post, check out this post from Ben Fisher.

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Have you used Google My Business posts to put up offers?

What have you noticed?

Leave a comment!

I’m talking about a local search result like this (click to enlarge):

Local “one-box” results (as they’re called) show only one Google My Business page, alongside some organic results.  It’s good for your business to have a one-box result any time you can nab one, because of how visible you are on the page: You’re the only business on the map (on the right), and you’ve got an organic ranking (off to the left).

A one-box only pops up for a business that have a Google My Business page.  If you’re a customer/searcher, you’ll usually see a one-box result pop up in one of four scenarios:

Scenario 1: You search by name for a specific company near you.

Scenario 2: You search for specific company that isn’t near you, but that has such a distinctive name that Google knows you want to see search results for that company.

Scenario 3: Google falsely assumes you wanted to see results for a specific company, when in fact you searched for a term broad enough that you thought several local businesses would show up.

Scenario 4: Google concludes there’s only one business near you (or in a specific city or area you search in) that provides the service or product you’re looking for.

Scenarios 1 and 2 aren’t relevant to this post.  In those cases the way you show up in the one-box results is just by having more people search for the name of your business, and that’s just a matter of “brand-building.”

I won’t be talking about scenario 3, either, for two reasons.  The first reason is that one-box visibility is a fluke in that case (Google incorrectly assumes people are searching for a specific company by name).  The second reason is that usually the only way to try to confuse Google into giving your business a one-box on the local map is to use a fake name for your Google My Business page, or to stuff keywords into the name.  Neither strategy is one you want to bank on.

Scenario 4 is a card you can play: If you can appear (to Google) to be the only business nearby that offers certain services or products, you can engineer more one-box results for your business.

How, exactly, do you go about that?

Some have speculated it’s a matter of getting reviews, or of general “on-page optimization,” or that it depends only on what the search term is  But based on my experiments and dissections, I’ve found that all you need to get a Google Maps one-box result is:

1. Create a separate page on your site about each specific, preferably “niche” service or product you offer. I don’t mean a page on something broad or that’s saturated with local competitors, like “Personal Injury Law” or “Riding Mowers.” I mean you need a page on “Banana Peel Injury Law” or “Duffer 9000 EZ Riding Mower,” or on whatever is the most specific way to characterize your service or product.

2. Point some internal links to that page: maybe one in the main navigation, another in the footer, one on the homepage, one on the main “Services” or “Products” page, and wherever else seems appropriate. Don’t go crazy with the internal links, but err on the side of more rather than fewer.

3. Mention that product or service on the landing page you use for your Google My Business page. (Preferably you also link to your dedicated page on that product or service, rather than just mention it.)

That’s it.  Of course, not much will happen until Google has indexed your page, but steps #2-3 may help expedite that.  Though I doubt you need search-term-relevant links or reviews to get one-box results for niche services or products, scaring up some reviews and links wouldn’t hurt, and is a good idea anyway.

A few notes:

• Is it possible other ingredients go into Google’s one-box sausage?  Sure.  It’s also possible that Google’s rhyme and reason will change later.  But in my experiments for clients and observations on others’ businesses, the above 3 steps are all you need to do.
• What if you want to get a one-box for more-competitive, non-niche search terms?  That’s a tough putt (even if you take a spammy approach), because Google knows of other businesses relevant to those search terms.  In that case, you’re vying for 3-pack rankings.

• Any Google Maps one-box results you get will be in addition to – not instead of – your organic rankings for those products or service.  It’s not an either-or deal.  Local SEO is mostly organic SEO in disguise.
• A bonus: even if you don’t get a one-box result, but you show up alongside local competitors in a Google Maps 2-pack or 3-pack, you’ll get the “Their website mentions [service or product]” snippet showing up under your name on the map.  That may help get you more clicks from the right searchers, among other benefits.

I’ve long said that you need a page on every distinct service or product you offer – preferably in-depth pages, and preferably on your more-niche offerings.  When clients and others have asked why they should bother, my reasons have always been (a) “You’ll convert more of the people who are looking for something very specific, and (b) “You want to show up in the organic search results, especially when there’s no local map.”  But these days, more so than I’ve ever seen before, creating a solid page on each offering will also grab you more visibility on the map.

 

 

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Have you tried rustling up some one-box results?  If so, what did you try, and how did it go?

Do your competitors have any one-box results you just can’t figure out?

Leave a comment!