Category: Google Maps

Google seems to be showing fewer and fewer local packs for various queries in the Google Search results interface. For the past few days or so, local SEOs have been noticing this trend and it is concerning them and their clients.

Google can show your business address in more than one language within Google Maps and the Google local search results. So if you have a hotel, Google might be able to show the address both in English and the local language, like French in our example…

Google has been rolling out “chat with live agent” buttons in some local business panels within Google Search. This seems to be part of the Google Business Profile messaging platform.

Google seems to be testing a new section on the local knowledge panels named “often searched together.” Mordy Oberstein found this and said on Twitter that it is a “great way to see who your local competitors really are.”

Google has a help document on “Common issues that delay bulk verification” that it updated to add more tips on avoiding delays with Google Business Profile bulk verification.

Google may be sending text messages to business owners to verify that the information they have listed in their Google Business Profile is accurate and up-to-date. This text comes from a confirmed Google phone number, but some local SEOs are worried th…

There is reportedly a confirmed bug with the Google Business Profile Manager where some business profiles are not showing up in the list. This can happen even when you search for the business you know you can access otherwise.

Google may be testing only showing images in the local finder, the local search results in Google Maps, for listings that are ads. The rest, may only show a map image but not an image from the business profile.

I don’t know if this is new (sorry Mordy) but Google is showing this blended local finder result set that seems to bridge two or more different but similar queries in the same set of results and then Google shows a line of text on what the local result…

Google has let you book reservations within the local pack and via Google Assistant for a while now. But what may be new is that Google may show you if you have already booked reservations in the local pack, if you booked those reservations using the r…

Google is testing having the map box automatically expand within the web search results, above or on the right side of the local pack results, when you begin to place your mouse cursor over the results.

Google is testing displaying a business profile listing in an overlay interface within the web search results instead of taking you into the Google Maps interface. So when you click on a business listing in the local pack, instead of it taking you int…

Google released spam and fraud prevention stats for Google Maps and local search. In short, Google blocked 21% more reviews, 5% more photos, 40% more videos, and 5% more fake business profiles in 2022 than they did in 2021.

Google Business Profiles seems to allow some restaurants to copy a menu that it thinks it pulled for that restaurant from another source and use that copied menu to start to build your own menu in Google Business Profiles.

It looks like review spammers are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to generate fake reviews. These reviews are being posted in Google Business Profile local listings and causing a headache for small businesses.

Google Business Profiles seems to have launched a new manage menu feature for restaurants in the web version of the business profile tool. It opens a “your menu on Google” box that lets you either manually build your custom menu in Google or link to y…

Google is testing showing only one star in the local pack in the search results. This is instead of showing five stars with some of those stars filled in with yellow. I am not seeing the single star partially filled up, but all those businesses may ha…

Google has updated the industry and services selector or picker tool within the Google Local Service Ads interface. This makes it a bit faster to find and activate your business’s services and industries.

Google Business Profiles lets you see what business listings offer service-wise, they’ve been doing this for a while now, and now they seem to impact your local rankings. But what is new and scary is that Google is making up pricing for your services t…

Google may be testing a new search result snippet that blends a typical search result snippet with a local snippet result. This one has the favicon, sitename, URL, title and image but it removed the description portion and replaced it with local featu…