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Google+ Autopsy for People Who Do Local SEO: What to Know and What to Do

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/robandstephanielevy/3092240036/

Google constantly tweaks the local search results, but every now and then makes a change that at least seems big.  I’m here to tell you the official shuttering of Google+ is not consequential for local SEO, and that your strategy shouldn’t change one whisker.

Still, the end of Google+ (hastened by the breach and cover-up) is a “teachable moment” for anyone whose business relies on Google Maps visibility and similar types of local visibility.  Here are a few quick observations and suggestions, in no particular order:

What to know

1. Every time you see what appears to be a big change in the local search results – of the kind seen in 2012 and 2015-2016 – don’t assume it will last. The local search results don’t change that much over the years. Google constantly adds and removes features, and messes with the layout, but the Google Maps / 3-pack results are remarkably similar to what they were in yesteryears.

2. Everything’s an experiment to Google. Not much is a permanent fixture, and nothing is sacred. When trying out any of Google’s new doo-dads, you need to ask how you can make it a temporary laboratory or Petri dish for your business.  The goal is to try out ideas that – if promising – you can develop without using anything owned by Google.

3. Those duplicate “Google+ for Business” pages are not a problem, have not been a problem for several years (if at all), and soon won’t exist at all. Don’t worry about ‘em.

4. Now would you agree that Google+ probably doesn’t affect your visibility on the local map (and likely never did)?

What to do (and what not to do)

1. Put your best content (or all of it) on your site, before and maybe instead of throwing it on the social platform du jour. Today it’s Google+. Tomorrow it may be Facebook.  If it’s not on a site you own, it’s not content you own.  That may sound like a royal pain, but as a longtime content-hoarder who doesn’t even do guest posts, I can tell you it’s best for all glory and links due you to benefit your site, rather than someone else’s.

2. Speaking of content-hoarding, don’t assume Google My Business posts will be around forever. Use them as a way to call attention to what’s on your site, but not in lieu of putting stuff on your site. Google My Business posts have promise now, especially if you use them now, but GMB posts are a laser pointer.  We’re the cats.  Google is the human.

3. Don’t ask customers for a “Google Plus” review. That’s been a vestigial term since early 2016. Just call them “Google reviews” or “Google Maps reviews” and people will know what you mean, and probably write you one.

4. Scour your site for “write a review” links and other links to your Google Plus page, and update those links. For the past 2 1/2 years there’s been no way to write a review from a Plus page. Soon those links simply will be broken. What do I suggest changing those Google+ links to? A Google-review link of the kind you can easily create here.

5. Perhaps it’s time to remove those G+ “share” buttons on your site.

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Questions, observations, or plans?

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P.S.  If you’ve been part of the Local Search G+ Community that Max Minzer and I have run for the last 5 years, please check out this post and let us know the direction you’d like us to take next.

Google My Business Posts Shelf-Life Hack: How to Keep Your Posts from Expiring Soon

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/1721746230/

The jury’s out on how useful Google My Business posts are, but they have promise.  I like ‘em so far.  They’re quick and easy to create, and they show up in one of the very few areas of the brand-name search results that you can control.

The annoying thing is you have to keep adding posts.  They expire every 7 days.  What if you like the post you put up last week, and want to keep it around for longer?  Nope.

You could always re-post the same thing, but you’d lose the all-too-basic stats Google shows you on each post.  Also, an endless string of the same post would look odd to anyone who pulls up your older posts.

Having to come up with a new post every 7 days is an understandable reason not to bother with GMB posts at all.  You don’t need another hamster-wheel activity.

Isn’t there any way to keep a post afloat for longer than 7 days?

Yes, there is.  It’s a clever workaround courtesy of Brendan Bowie of My Guys Moving & Storage.  It involves choosing the “Event” type of post when you create a Google My Business post.

As some observed a while ago, the “Event” type of post does not expire after 7 days.  That’s been the case for as long as I’ve paid attention to GMB posts.  What I didn’t know were 3 facts you can use to your advantage:

(1) you can call anything you post on an “event,” (2) the end of the “event” can be months away, and (3) if you do those things your GMB post won’t look strange in the search results.

The call-to-action button can be anything on Google’s list of calls-to-action.

 

The expiration date – the day the “event” ends – can be up to a year away. (Hat tip to Ben Fisher – see his comment.)

The even-smarter part is that Brendan first tested other types of posts, with different content and calls-to-action.  The one that worked best (to date) became the “Event” type of post, with the far-off expiration date.  Also, you can edit your post after you publish it, so that you’re not stuck with exactly the same stinkin’ thing for months.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andyhay/3034947087/

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What type of Google My Business post has worked well (or badly) for you?

Have you tried this “hack” yet?

Leave a comment!

Suggested Local Search Terms Ooze onto Google’s Default Homepage

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Local-business results were plenty visible before.  We’ve long seen them in the Maps 3-pack, in the Maps tab, in the Maps app, and in the local organic search results.

You or I might say, “The local results are visible enough” or, “OK, we know where to find ‘em.”  Google, on the other hand, might say, “Where else can we push local search results?”

On the holiest of holy ground: the homepage of Google:

3 suggested searches for specific songs, plus “piano teachers near me.”  Loosely related, of course, but which of those items least belongs under that heading of “Explore musical instruments and sheet music”?

The results may be Chrome-specific and personalized.  For all I know, maybe they’re music-specific.  I had been listening to some Irish pub songs on YouTube in the same browsing session, which may have turned Google onto the musical theme.  If I watch a cat video, then will I get a nudge toward “veterinarian near me” or “cat psychologist nearby”?

The kicker is that when I clicked the link, the local results I saw weren’t great.

Two businesses with keyword-stuffed Google My Business names, and absent was the very-nearby music school where my wife has taken violin lessons (which you’d assume Big Brother Google knows we like).

Anyway, I don’t know yet whether this is just a weird little test.  I suspect not, given how over the years the the organic results have become localized, and the ads have seeped into the Maps results, and the Maps results have shown for more terms that used to show only organic results.  I suspect this is the next phase of Google’s mixing all the chocolate with all the peanut butter.

But who knows.  I just caught a little glimpse of something that may or may not be something.

Have you seen any suggested local search terms on Google’s homepage / your default Chrome page?

Any other observations?

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Want to Guess How Many Local Businesses Use Google My Business Posts?

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/idletype/430895151/

Google My Business posts have been around since mid-2017.  They seem to have caught on – more than many of Google’s “local business” features have – mostly because the payoff is clear: GMB posts stick out in your brand-name search results, and can nudge people toward the next step you’d like them to take.

Should you use Google My Business posts – for your business?  On the one hand is the “Why not?” argument.  You can give GMB posts a try for a few months and see if they’re worth the (small) effort.

On the other hand, the “Why bother?” argument also has merit.  To wit:

  • If most businesses use GMB posts already, won’t customers tune them out?
  • If few businesses use GMB posts, have most business owners just concluded they’re a waste of time?
  • If few businesses use them, will Google retire GMB posts soon?

You probably don’t need another distraction – another thing to keep you from focusing on the stuff with clearer payoff to your local visibility.

This is where it helps to know specifically how many businesses use – or ever have used – Google My Business posts.  I couldn’t find any numbers on that, and when possible I like a better understanding than, “Umm, not many” or “A lot, I guess.”  So I did some research.

I looked at 2000 businesses in the Google Maps results, in 100 local markets.  Those 100 markets covered 10 cities across the US, and focused on 10 categories of businesses.  (More on my methodology in a minute.)  I counted how many businesses had created a GMB post recently – within the last 7 days – and how many businesses had ever done a GMB post.

Here’s a summary of what I found – the numbers on businesses’ adoption of Google My Business posts:

Q: How many businesses have ever created a Google My Business post?
A: About 17%.

Q: How many businesses have posted recently and seem to post regularly?
A: About 4%.

Q: How many businesses posted at least once, but seem not to keep up with it?
A: About 13%.

Q: Of the businesses that do post on GMB, how many seem to do it regularly?
A: About 1 in 4.

Q: In how many local markets has at least one business (in the top 20) ever tried GMB posts?
A: About 91% of local markets.  In only 9% of markets (that I looked at) nobody had ever posted.

Q: In an average first page of “Maps tab” results (20 local businesses), how many have ever tried GMB posts?
A: About 3 businesses.

Q: How saturated do local markets get, in terms of how many local businesses post on GMB?
A: The most I ever saw was 10 businesses out of the top 20.  There were a few nines and a few eights.  Again, the vast majority of businesses I looked at have never posted.

You can download my spreadsheet here.  If you look at it, I’d love to hear any insights you glean that I didn’t mention.

Methodology and limitations

1. I looked only at businesses in the US. I imagine the adoption of (or dabbling in) GMB posts is a little lower outside of the US, but of course it just depends on the local market.

2. I looked only at larger and medium cities in the US. In some cases Google Maps drew results from the suburbs, but I didn’t search there or in less-populated areas. In my experience, adoption of Google My Business features (and the like) is lower outside of the larger cities.

3. I searched in Google Maps – in the “local finder” – so I could look at a larger sample of businesses. The alternative was to look at the top 3 businesses on page 1 of Google’s main search results, but Google’s main search results don’t show who’s using GMB posts. I’d have to click on each listing anyway.  In the “Maps” view, I could pull up a list of 20, and very quickly check each business and see whether it had any GMB posts.

4. I focused on 10 industries, by way of 10 search terms: “dentist, “family lawyer,” “auto repair,” “roofing,” “animal hospital,” “preschool,” “electrician,” “real estate agent,” “music lessons, and “plastic surgeon.” Could I have looked at 100 industries? Sure, but I’d still be missing some categories, because there’s an infinity of them.  So I chose to focus on the more-competitive spaces, with a bent toward the brutal markets.  I’ve been in local search for 10 years, and picked the least-bad core sample I could.  (If you do a study like this one, but look at different categories, I’ll be your biggest cheerleader.)

5. What about the red search terms on my spreadsheet? Those represent cases where the search term I originally chose (e.g. “Boston animal hospital”) didn’t produce a full page of 20 businesses in Google Maps. That would have shrunken the sample size a little, and skewed my data a little, so in those cases I just picked a different search term – one that did pull up 20 businesses on the first page of Maps.

6. Over time the number of businesses with a “fresh” GMB post (i.e. posted within the last 7 days) may decrease, or just not grow as quickly as the % of businesses in the “stale posts” column. The reason is simply that most businesses don’t stick with posting on GMB. Today’s business with a fresh post is next week’s business with a stale post.

7. Which categories of businesses post the most? I don’t know, because I’d need to have looked at all or at a couple hundred industries. But I can say that, of the categories I looked at, dental practices seemed the most post-happy.

8. How closely does GMB-posting activity correspond to rankings? I don’t know, because that wasn’t what I set out to find out here. That’s a discussion for another day.  In any case, it would be tough to say, because a business owner who bothers to post on GMB probably has other local SEO irons in the fire.

9. What about the businesses that didn’t even make the first page of Maps results – the businesses ranked #21 and lower? I didn’t look at those. I suspect they post a little less than do businesses on the first page of Maps.

Observations (beyond the numbers)

Most businesses don’t keep up with Google My Business posts.  Of the businesses I looked at, only 4% had posted within the past week, versus 13% that had posted at one time or another (less recently than within the last week). They don’t keep the posts coming.  Google’s mother-hen reminders don’t work too well, apparently.

Because Google sends you a reminder every time your post is about to “expire,” my guess is business owners think that creating a new post is a big chore and a pain.  Maybe they have few good photos to share, or they think a GMB post needs to be like a Facebook post.  Or maybe they choose to post every 2 weeks.  In any case, Google should add a “re-post this post” feature, or something like that.

Customers aren’t drowning in Google My Business posts (at least not yet).  Do some businesses post too often?  Yes.  Are most posts well-done and worthy of searchers’ and customers’ attention?  No.  But most businesses haven’t overdone GMB posts, because most businesses (over 82%) haven’t used GMB posts.

Given how hard Google is pushing GMB posts, if there’s ever a time to give them a try, I’d say that time is now.

Enough businesses seem to use Google My Business posts that Google probably will keep the feature around, and maybe add to it over time.  17% may not sound like a high percentage.  But if my cross-section of 2000 businesses is at all representative, then many millions of business owners have tried GMB posts at one time or another.

Google often kills off products and features both popular and unloved, so we can’t assume GMB posts will be around forever.  But when I think of how slowly most business owners adopt new features, and how (relatively) new GMB posts are, I’d say the chances are good GMB posts will stay out of the Google graveyard.

Good further info on GMB posts

How to Create a Google My Business Post That Will Win You More Customers – Ben Fisher

12 Things to Know to Succeed with Google Posts – Joy Hawkins

Do Google Posts Impact Ranking? A Case Study – Joy Hawkins

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Any researchable numbers or facts you’d like me to cover?

If you’ve looked at my data, did you reach any different or additional conclusions?

What’s the lowdown on Google My Business posts in your local market?

Any success stories?

Leave a comment!

Can Google Index the Content of Embedded Yelp Reviews?

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/pfala/3813096211/

Can Google?  Yes.  Will Google always index the content in Yelp reviews?  Jury’s out.

Google can access the content in Yelp reviews you embed on your site (via Yelp’s embed feature), despite the fact that those Yelp reviews are in iframes.

Here’s an example:

On those two pages the only content with that phrase is in an embedded Yelp review.  (And that’s always been the case on those pages.)

Because Google has gotten better at rendering  iframe conent and Javascript in recent years, maybe it’s inevitable Google indexes more of that content than it used to (or was able to).

On the other hand, on the pages I cited a minute ago, much of the content is in Yelp reviews.  Proportionally, their content is pretty Yelp-heavy.  The pages I looked at where Google doesn’t seem to have indexed the Yelp content also have proportionally more non-Yelp-review content.  That suggests there’s some truth to John Mueller’s characteristically brief and clear answer that, in effect, Google is more likely to index iframe content (like embedded Yelp reviews) when that content makes up a large chunk of the page.

Why does any of that matter to your local SEO?

For one thing, copying and pasting your customers’ Yelp reviews onto your site long has been the best way to ensure that Google can access that relevant content (that you didn’t have to write!).  But copying and pasting is a hassle if you want the reviews to look good on your site, because you’ll have to style them a little.  Now, I’d say it’s not as much of a trade-off: you can use the embed feature to have your Yelp reviews look OK on your site, and still be confident that Google at least knows what’s in the reviews.

Another upshot is that you might lessen the problem of your Yelp page outranking your site for certain brand-name search terms.  Often Google seems split as to which one should rank higher: your site because presumably it’s the “home base” of your business, or your Yelp page because it’s got the juicy reviews on your business?  More often than not Google puts your site above your Yelp page, but not always.  If your Yelp page seems to be cannibalizing your site’s visibility, consider cannibalizing your Yelp reviews on your site by embedding them.  Might make your site a little stickier, too.

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Anything I should test or look into?

What’s been your experience with embedding Yelp reviews?

Any benefits or drawbacks I didn’t mention?

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