Category: Google Maps

Google is now showing products that businesses add through the Google Business Profile manager directly in Google Shopping search results. I was not sure if this is new, but it seems most local SEOs think it is, so I am sharing it here.

Google has made a couple of updates to the Google Maps User Contributed Content Policy around prohibited and restricted content. Specifically, Google updated the definition of personal information under the Civil discourse section and fake engagement u…

Google is testing a few interfaces for the Google Posts and updates in the local interfaces. One is to overlay the Google updates in the images for the business listing and the other is to show a “more posts” button in the Google Posts overlay in Goog…

The Google Maps app for Android has seem to add a new tab to manage your business profile(s). The tab shows a store icon with the word “Business” below it. Clicking it, lets you manage your Google Business Profile listing directly in the app.

Google Business Profiles lets you access and edit your business profile from web search (like it or not) and recently, Google has been testing showing a “see photos” button in addition to the normal “add photos” button.

Joy Hawkins and friends re-did a study they did years ago to discover that now the services you add to your Google Business Profiles now have an impact on your local rankings – at least way more than it did in 2019.

Last June, Google began testing a “profile strength” widget or status icon that shows you if you need to do more with your Google Business Profile. Well, that just went live on Friday and seemed to be fully rolled out. But many local SEOs are not hap…

Just a PSA, Google is fully deprecating the legacy Google My Business API on February 20, 2023 – this coming Monday. This is not new, most of those using the old API had most of its features deprecated now and we reported about this last year. But now…

For the past few weeks, there have been reports via the Local Search Forum that Google has been removing emojis and special characters from business names within Google Business Profiles. This means if you try to add an emoji for your name to stand ou…

Google has confirmed that its latest efforts to filter out local reviews against its policies and guidelines went too far. Google, over the next few weeks, is working to restore the policy-abiding reviews that were removed by its automated systems as f…

Google is now opening up its car or auto inventory feature within Google Business Profiles to all motor vehicle dealerships. Google began testing car listings in 2021 and then expanded the cars for sale feature in 2022 and now it is open to all dealers…

Now, Google is showing double justifications for some local results. Google’s local search results has a feature to highlight and/or summarize some of the local reviews in the map pack and local search results snippet. These highlights or summarizatio…

Google is testing the “order online” button from the bottom of the search result snippet to the top of that snippet. I see it on the bottom, but some can see it towards the top of the snippet, above the sitelinks but under the description area.

Google has posted a new help document for posting restrictions around user-generated content in Google Maps. This is specific to reviews, photos, and videos users may update to Google Maps. This may also include content such as ratings or Q&A topics.

Google Posts insights is no longer working, it has been discontinued according to the Google Business Profiles API documentation for the deprecation schedule.

Google is testing displaying a round map pin that has a business photo in the pin itself. This is supposedly working on some Google Maps devices when you request directions.

Google is testing a “check wait time” button for some local results in the Google search results. I guess this tells you how long you have to wait to receive service from the local business, like a restaurant.

Late last week, Google Business Profiles had a bug where uploading images to your business profile would fail. This was reported first by Tim Capper on Twitter on Thursday and the issue continued in through the weekend.

Google Business Profiles seems to be testing, beta testing, the ability for businesses to add more details, to “say more about” their business attributes.

Mike Blumenthal dropped a simple but thoughtful local SEO tip that all businesses should do some time in the near future. Just check the featured photos that Google selected to be displayed in your Google Maps pin overlay.