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Over the years, we’ve seen Google add so much stuff to the search results that we’ve concluded Google doesn’t even want searchers to click through to your website, because (Google assumes) everything people want to know is right there in the search results.  Some smart people in the local-search space have called that slow transformation “Google as your new homepage.”  Who needs to see your homepage when Google can save people a click or tap?

As with so many other things, COVID-19 will probably change that.  At least in the crazy world of search, it seems the big lesson is: we still need to click.

Google’s local search results are affected by the disruption and (to a lesser extent) contribute to it.  In the long haul, that may us a little less reliant on them and more reliant on what’s on businesses’ sites.

The main problem (as usual) is in the combination of Google Maps/My Business and the knowledge panel.  That’s where Google has really made a dog’s breakfast of things.  The rest of the search results (organic, PPC, and YouTube) are just SNAFU.

What problems do I think have ended, delayed, or complicated Google’s ability to function as the “homepage” for businesses?  What’s likely to have forced or compelled more searchers to click through to businesses’ sites?

1. The info in the local search results has been even less trustworthy since the COVID-19 outbreak started. Businesses are labeled as “temporarily closed” that may be open, and vice versa. Edits made in the Google My Business dashboard have been “pending” for longer than usual, so updates to hours (for instance) may be late to appear.  One result is people need to click through to the site to see what a business’s status really is.

2. The info is even less fresh. Google hasn’t allowed new reviews, new responses to reviews, or new Q&A. In recent days, posts have not worked properly.  (I put up some GMB posts for some clients early on in the outbreak, but since then it seems the wheels have popped off the wagon.)

3. Google My Business “support” has been on life support. In an understandable and wise effort to limit Coronavirus spread between employees, Google has used only a skeleton crew to provide support, and presumably has had some staff working remotely. The unintended consequence is there is less help for more problems.

4. Google My Business never has made accommodations for telemedicine or other virtual offerings. The list of business categories, “attributes,” or other fields in the GMB dashboard do not allow you to specify whether you offer non-in-person versions of your service.  (The Google Helpouts feature sorta-kinda used to  do that, but that feature has been gone for much longer than it was around.)  So all you and customers are left with is the Google My Business description, which you may or may not be able to update, and which you may or may not want to change.  So everyone needs to click through to your site to determine whether and how you offer a virtual option.

5. In the Google My Business description and in “posts” (when they function) there isn’t enough space to say much. Another reason people need to click through to your site.

6. Google doesn’t introduce relevant new Google My Business categories or filters quickly enough. Search for something like “Coronavirus testing near me” and you’ll see what I mean: no local map 3-pack results for that, partly because there isn’t a Google My Business category for that.  Similar deal with filters.  You can type in “urgent care clinic” and filter by rating or by hours, but you can’t filter by “offers virtual appointments” (for instance).

Google’s mission has always been to rob people blind “organize the world’s information.”  It’s somewhere in the middle of that process, or perhaps it’s the end of the beginning.  But Google doesn’t have all the world’s information, partly because some of it is in business owners’ noggins, and partly because that information changes by the hour.  That should be where business owners come in, because only they can fill in the gaps, if only Google will not get in the way.

So that’s where one’s website must come in.  The local search results have become more complete and helpful over the years, but the local results fall apart when people want to find a very specific service or product, delivered in a certain way, perhaps under unusual circumstances.  That’s why your site needs a page on every offering, many and visible internal links to those pages, and a powerhouse homepage, and you need the ability to make quick and imperfect changes fast.  Google can’t do all that for you, or for the people who want or need to find exactly what you offer.

Google’s years-long push toward showing everything in the local search results assumes that everyone has a short attention span.  Many people do, of course, but people who want to find one particular thing often will dig until they find it.

Think of when you’ve tried to buy toilet paper.  Walmart could throw a brick of 24 on the roof and someone would find it.  The supermarket could hide a roll between the frozen lima beans and the frozen Brussels sprouts, and the rolls would be on the conveyor belt 5 minutes later.  That’s because all the shoppers are basically in the right place, and not on the road or in the parking lot.  Only your website can show people where the toilet paper is.

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What’s your take?

How else might the COVID-19 outbreak change the “Google as your homepage” mission?

To what extent have you found it helpful to make website changes on the fly?

Leave a comment!

At some point, daily life will go from FUBAR back to good old TARFU.  When that happens, do you want to continue with the businesses you love and rely on, or will you find them on Boot Hill between Sears and Toys “R” Us?  Your review might make the difference.

Supporting businesses that do a good job is always a good thing.  Whatever form that takes during this disaster (COVID-19) or in future disasters is probably helpful and welcomed.

But do you know what most business owners like even more than your prepaying for services or ordering a gift card?  Customers.  Both the fish and the ability to fish more.  That’s where reviews come in.

Any revenue businesses get now will help them now, but then they have to fulfill later.  That’s the deal, of course.  But it can create a serious pinch later, especially if a lot of customers prepaid around the time you did.

Writing a detailed and useful review – maybe one you’ve meant to write for a while – helps in at least two ways that prepaying or gift-carding can’t:

1. It can help the business get a customer now who needs the business’s services or products now. The business can probably do the work or fulfill the order now more easily than it can later, when it may be under a pinch. You may not need the service or product now, but someone out there does.

2. You may expand their customer base a little. The only thing better than a happy and loyal customer is one who also brings in more customers like him or her. That is the ultimate.  On a couple of occasions I’ve been told, “By the way, thanks for your review a few months ago.  A few customers have mentioned it as a reason they ended up choosing us.”  That’s always nice to hear.

Writing a helpful and maybe influential review takes time, and maybe you don’t have the time to help all the local businesses you want to help.  In that case, at least help a couple of businesses.  If you don’t do it for them, at least do it for selfish reasons: If it’s a business you like or rely on, you probably want it to stay in business, or else you’ll need to shop around later and still maybe not find as good a provider.

How can you write a review that packs a wallop, and at just the right time?  A few basic SOPs:

• Go into detail, or as much as you can. Explain why you picked the business, and how it stacks up against alternatives (e.g. other businesses you may have used in the past). If possible, explain why you still use the service or brought the product even now, when times are tough, or explain why customers’ money is well-spent if they do so.
• Post your review on a 2nd review site, or at least offer to do so. Stick your Google Maps review (for example) on another review site, or vice versa. It won’t get filtered because of the cross-posting, in my experience.
• Ask the business owner what he or she would find most helpful. One way to do that is to ask, “Hey, I’d like to write you a review. Any particular site you want, and any points you want me to touch on?”  Another way is to say, “I just wrote you a review. Let me know if you want me to tweak anything, expand on anything, add photos, etc.”

I guess it depends on the business and on the owner, but I’ve found often that I get extra-good service after I’ve reviewed a business.  On the one hand, maybe that’s because I do my research and only work with solid companies and people, so I avoid the deadbeats.  On the other hand, most business owners remember a good word and a good deed, and try to make it worth your while.

Writing a review of a business you like is free, but it can accomplish a lot:

• Help keep them in business for their sake, in a time of need.
• Help keep them in business for your sake.
• Help other customers find and pick a keeper.
• Possibly earn you “VIP” treatment sooner or later.

Reviewing good businesses is time well-spent.

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Do your reviewing habits change at all during rough times?

To what extent do you have customers come out of the woodwork when it matters most?

Any unconventional suggestions on how business owners can encourage stressed-out people to put in a good word online?

Leave a comment!

If you or someone you know is a business owner whose business has been shut down or severely hobbled by Coronavirus regulation or the like, I’m glad to offer a bit of local SEO/search/visibility advice free of charge or obligation.  All you’d need to do is read the stuff below and email me your questions.

It’s possible you’re not legally allowed to see customers / clients / patients at all, or in the way you usually do.  In that case maybe you have a plan B you want to get off the ground, or you’re rolling out a remote, “socially distanced” version of your service, or you just want to use your downtime to maximum effect so that business is OK once this has stabilized.  For goals like those I can probably help.

Some things to know – please read all of this before contacting me:

1. I can offer only a limited amount of help. My family and clients are my first priorities, and I have a full dance card.  I can’t do hands-on work for you, or spend much time.  The ideal situation is you have some specific and pressing local-search-related questions, and just want clear guidance on what to do.  I’ll email you back.  There’s a chance I’ll also suggest a quick phone call, if that’s the quickest way to convey my suggestions.

2. Your struggles need to be specifically because of Coronavirus. I’m thinking of dentists who aren’t allowed to see patients at all, doctors who can’t perform elective procedures for a while, and restaurant owners who rely on butts in the chairs more than on takeout – for example.

3. Some groups of people I can’t help. If you’re a marketer/SEO with a client who’s been clobbered by recent events, you’ve got my empathy, and you can send this to a client and he or she can contact me and CC you, but I wouldn’t send you advice that you white-label and charge for.  If you’re a competitor of one of my clients, I probably can’t help (for obvious reasons).  If your business is one that’s in a temporary slowdown, but not in a real pinch caused by COVID-19 regulation or aftermath, then I can’t offer any pro bono help, because you’re in the same situation as probably 80% of businesses.  My SOP is “I know it when I see it.”

4. You may want to check my list of posts first, to see if I’ve done a blog post that does the trick.  (I’d love to hear if that’s all you needed.)

5. Send me at least a brief rundown on the situation CV has created for your business. I will ignore “I’m here for the free help, k thx”-type requests.  I just want to make sure you truly need help, and that it’s entirely or mostly because of regulations (or similar fallout) that hit your business unusually hard.

6. If you need or want more help than I can provide pro bono, I’ll need to point you in another direction.  I’ll tell you one of three things: (1) “Just follow those suggestions and see how far you get,” or (2) “Consider such-and-such service I offer,” or (3) “Contact so-and-so, who may be able to help – though probably not for free.” I’ll still point you in the right direction on whatever questions you send me, if possible.  It’s just that I have an obligation to “flatten the curve” on the time I spend on any one situation.

7. Some problems don’t have a local search/SEO solution.

8. Feel free to send this to someone you know.

Why am I offering to help Coronavirus-clobbered businesses for free?  Just for good karma.  On the one hand, I’m stingy with my time, because I need most or all of it to meet my commitments.  But on the other hand, if in the short time left over I can help people in a pinch, that makes me feel good.  I’ve helped veterans pro bono in a similar way for many years, and that’s worked out well.  We have an understanding, and so I can offer a little help to people who can and do use it.  Should be a similar situation here.

Plus, I always like an up-close success story.

Anyway, if all that describes your Coronavirus conundrum and the fine-print sounds reasonable, feel free to email me or to pass this along to someone you know.

Other people offering pro bono local SEO help during the Coronavirus crisis:

• Chris Barnard of Social Dental Network.  Consider contacting Chris if you’re a dentist who’s had to hunker down, consider contacting.
• Dani Owens of Pigzilla.  I’ve worked with Dani on many client projects over the years.  Dani also builds websites, so if you were already considering a new site, but need to hold off until things settle down, now may be a good time to get to know her.

You can leave a comment on this post if you have questions about the above.  (No specific SEO questions in the comments, please.  That’s what your email is for.)

If you’ve got a Google My Business page that specifies your service area but not your address, Google won’t show your category in the sidebar (the “knowledge panel”).

You’ll still see it in Google Maps and in the 3-pack.

You’ll also see it if you’ve specified your street address.

But you won’t see it in the sidebar for a business with a hidden address in Google My Business, when you search for that business by name.  Someone asked about this at the GMB forum last year, so either nobody else noticed it until now, only I didn’t notice it until now, or it’s another test that Google made on a micro scale (last year) and then rolled out more broadly (now).

Why the change?  Who knows.  A few theories:

1. It’s possible Google is downplaying where the business is, because when Google used to show the category it would be in a context like, “Roofing company in Peoria, Illinois.” Of course, because Google no longer requires you to specify your street address after verifying your Google My Business page, Google may not have confidence it knows where a service-area business is located.

2. It’s possible Google is downplaying the “category” field. The list of categories is odd and full of holes, and many people pick too many or irrelevant categories, and Google long has chosen to show whichever category it thinks is most relevant to whatever a person just searched for.

3. Maybe it’s just another test or part of a larger change, perhaps somehow tied to a scheme to stuff more ads into the local results.

Have you noticed anything odd with how Google displays categories, especially for hidden-address / service-area businesses?

When did you notice the change?

Any theories?

Leave a comment!

An “Areas Served” or “Service Areas” or “Cities” or “Locations” page doesn’t get much consideration in the local SEO world, and that’s a shame.  If you do it right, that kind of page can rank for some juicy terms, help other pages to rank, make your site structure simpler, help people navigate your site, and impress would-be customers.

A “Service Areas”-type page is like a “Location Finder” page, except it’s more for service-area businesses that travel TO most customers (rather than have customers visit a bricks-and-mortar location).   Most often it’s for a home-based business – or one with one physical location – that serves customers in a wider area (like within a 30-mile radius, for example).

Even more so than your typical “Location Finder” page, the average “Service Areas” page is pretty feeble, because it’s hard to know what you should put on it, other than a big ugly list of cities you serve.  The result is those pages usually have all the charm and appeal of a rubber glove factory.

 

 

The competitive bar is low, yet you have a lot to gain by getting a “Service Areas” / “Areas Served” / “Cities” page right.  How can you do that?  I’ll do this post somewhat backwards and start off with a list of examples.  I’ve got a little color commentary below each example, plus my list of principles below all of the examples, at the end.

Example 1: icedamremovalguys.com/ice-dam-guy-services/service-areas/

 

Main strengths of this page: Lots of content on the places where the business has done jobs, effective “near me” optimization, internal links to relevant “city” pages, and relevant photos and videos.  This page itself gets plenty of internal links from other pages on the site.

 

Example 2: kammescolorworks.com/service-areas.html

 

Main strengths of this page: Photos of jobs in specific areas the business owner has prioritized, a blurb on why each town is in the service area, and well-placed links to “city” pages (without overdoing it).

 

Example 3: r3detailing.com/near-me-car-detail/

Main strengths of this page: Plenty of info on the specific services offered within the service area, and a good section on why the service area matters.

Though not technically a “service areas” page, this similar page could double as one, and it’s also done well: r3detailing.com/houston-mobile-car-detailing/

 

Example 4: tri-spestcontrol.com/areas-served/

 

Main strengths of this page: Houses “city” and “county” pages effectively, has a nice map graphic at the top, and doesn’t just pay lip service to each city or county.

 

Example 5: centralmassauctions.com/boston

 

Main strengths of this page: Though not presented as a “service areas” page, it functions as one, in that it targets and seemingly ranks in a variety of cities and towns surrounding the main focus (Boston).  Also wheels out a ton of proof elements (photos, videos, reviews, and news appearances).

 

Honorable mention: 770arborist.com/tree-services/24-hour-emergency-storm-services/

 

Main strengths of this page: It’s a “service areas” page in disguise.  Technically the page is about one specific (relatively niche) service, but it’s optimized somewhat for several main cities in the service area.  With some work it could be like the pages in examples #1 and #5, above.

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Now that we’ve gone through a few examples, my dos and don’ts might stick more.  Here are my main suggestions to create a “service areas” page that works for you:

1. Don’t assume the visitor has chosen your business yet. You can’t assume visitors are ready yet to take the next step and click on one of your “city” pages or pick a nearby location to visit, because you can’t be sure they’ve picked you yet. Especially if your “Areas Served” or “Service Area” or “Locations” page ranks for a competitive search term, pretty much everyone on your page isn’t in the bag yet.  Devote a visible blurb or two to why people should pick you at all

2. Try to get it to rank for “near you” / “near me” or “near [city]” search terms. In general, those terms are relevant to an “Areas Served”-type page. In most cases that “near me” optimization is pretty straightforward (see this post and this one).

3. Include plenty of info on your specific services – or at least on each service you consider a high priority. The page shouldn’t be limited to info on your service area. All that would say is what places you travel to, and not what services you perform in those places.  A good “Areas Served” page makes both the “what” and the “where” clear.

4. Provide war stories: showcase the jobs you’ve done more than the jobs you want. Some customers don’t care if you’re new to their town or area. But other people do care, for reasons good and bad, practical and tribal.  If you’ve never done a job in a certain place, you might still rank there and may get customers out of the deal.  But it’s a little harder then, because your page is more likely to amount to a fancy way of saying, “Pick me, pick me, pretty please.”  Talking about the jobs you’ve done is the best kind of content also because you don’t have to think too hard about what to say.

5. Go heavy on internal links to relevant pages. Your “service areas” page is one of the best places to plop down plenty of links to relevant pages on your site, like to “city” pages and to various “service” pages. Of course, you don’t want it to be the only place you link to other pages you care about: your homepage and main nav (and maybe footer) also should have plenty of links to high-priority pages, and your “city” pages should link generously to your “services” pages and vice versa.  Still, the “service areas” page is the place to go heavy, if ever there was one.

6. Make your “service areas” page good enough that you link to it often on other pages of your site. It’s not just there to rank: it also serves a practical purpose for customers. But it won’t help them if they never go the page, and (in my experience) Google is much less likely to rank pages that aren’t woven much into a site’s internal linking.

7. In general, observe the same principles you would for “city” pages or “state” pages. That means, among other things, that you should explain (or at least hint at) why your service area is what it is. It also means that although you should try to think of something to say about each town and why someone there should hire you.  If you can’t think of anything to say or show off about a specific town, but still want to try to rank in a place, at least mention it on your “service areas” page.  (In most cases that won’t be enough to rank there, but because you’re don’t just ignore the place, at least it’s possible you’ll get calls from there.)

8. Know that it can rank for a range of search terms: “city” terms, “near me” terms, and “service” terms (without any place name).  One result of that is “service areas” pages take a little pressure off of you to create “city” pages, particularly slapdash pages that don’t rank, don’t rank for long, or that don’t get you any customers.

 

9. Build your “service areas” page before you build any “city” pages.  That makes it much easier to integrate your “city” pages into your internal linking, and to house them in a place visitors will see them.  Also, if it takes you a long time to create a good page on each high-priority city or place, your “service areas” page can run interference in the meantime.

10. If you have multiple physical locations within the larger service area, add at least one solid blurb about each physical location. It’s a little easier to write something coherent about a place if you have an office or showroom there.

11. You don’t need to call it “service areas” or “areas served,” necessarily. It can be a page about a whole region, or about a core city and its suburbs, for example. You can see one example of that in example #4 (earlier in the post), and a few related examples here.

12. It’s a good time to lay it on thick with the “image SEO,” especially if you can showcase specific jobs you did in specific cities in your service area. Also consider putting up a map or other graphic that shows your service area.

13. It’s OK if the page doesn’t rank – either for a while, or much at all. Your consolation prize is that you put work into a page that answers would-be customers’ questions, and that either gets them to pick up the phone or that directs them to another page that gets them to take the next step.  Again, that’s the worst-case scenario.  More likely is that you’ll also sweep up some rankings you didn’t have before.

 

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Do you have any examples of GOOD “service areas”-type pages?

What’s a principle that’s worked well (or hasn’t worked) for you?

Leave a comment!